Another Soldier Reporting
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: If there's one thing Lal hates, it's Vongola craziness. On the other hand, perhaps being randomly thrown back in it time is a good thing. After all, she had so many regrets before she joined the military, and now she has a chance to do things right. There's only thing she didn't anticipate the fact that the guy who had a crush on her forever has a few secrets of his own.
1. Chapter 1

**Word of warning, I'm going to skip a lot of years 1-3, because the real action starts in Year Four.**

* * *

Green eyes sprang open, and a soft curse was heard. She knew it was possible for the Ten Year Bazooka to send people into the future, but she never thought that she would get caught in the Vongola's level of crazy and end up in her _past_! And she _was_ in her past...the surroundings and the fact she recognized the wards confirmed it.

Looking at her tiny, five year old hands, she scowled rather impressively for a child.

Goddamn Vongola. At least this time she could set a lot of things right, provided this didn't suddenly reverse itself in the next five minutes.

As the dark gave into dawn Lal Mirch, formerly Lilac Adhara Potter, wanted to beat the ever living shit out of someone. Preferably Iemitsu...it was _his_ spawn who let his crazies run wild and play around with that stupid bazooka.

Looking at her tiny hands, she was almost glad she had been clipped by that damn curse.

It meant she knew _exactly_ how to adjust her training to get back into what SHE considered acceptable shape, though she was not sticking around Surrey any longer than she had to. She vaguely recalled the day that set her on the military path, though it took her far too much pain and suffering before she started basic training.

The day one of the men who had been overseas serving Queen and country as part of the Royal Navy came back and surprised his kid.

Being part of the military was one of the few careers Vernon would actually approve of, and if she was able to leave around certain papers that mentioned _year-round_ schooling she had little doubt he'd jump at the chance to be rid of her legally in a way the magical enclaves couldn't do anything about. After all, she was getting an education.

Dumbledore would have a hell of a time explaining why he was forcing her to attend the same school as her cousin...especially if she happened to drop hints of Dudley being part of the SAS or something to Vernon. After all, surviving a military academy would look _much _more impressive to Smeltings and would make them look better to the neighbors.

The Hat always said she would have done well in Slytherin, and Lal wanted no part of the idiocy and bigotry of Privet Drive a second time.

For now she would have to bide her time.

_One year later..._

Lal Mirch had to smirk wickedly, in her mind anyway. If Vernon knew he was being deliberately set up by his niece there would be no end of trouble for her. A beating would be the leastof her worries.

Vernon saw the brochures for the year-round academies... some families could send their children to be trained not only during the school year, but also do extra training during the summer months as long as they paid for it. It also came with food, a bed, a set uniform and most of the basic amenities.

However the children would have to endure basic training scaled down for their still developing bodies, a strict dietary regimen and and even stricter set of rules that had to be followed or they would suffer punishment like running laps for several hours. Not to mention the _very_ early wake up calls every morning.

Lal found the one that appealed to her the most, and made very sure that the brochure for Smeltings was right next to it as a subtle hint. A little minor compulsion charm made sure that the idea of sending both children to military academy would root itself in Vernon's mind... at the very least she wanted to be sure he enlisted her.

She had to hide a smile as Vernon started making discreet calls late at night, when they were supposed to be sleeping.

Petunia didn't particularly like the idea of sending her "precious Diddikins" away from her, but Vernon managed to soothe her worries by pointing out they would be rid of the 'freak' and that it would 'look less suspicious' if both the children were in the same academy.

Besides, he had no intention of making Dudley stay there over the summer.

Lal inwardly cackled as her 'family' had them enrolled in one of the best military academies in the UK within a month of leaving those brochures out for Vernon to find.

Dudley would be in the 'special' training courses meant for potential officers, while Lal would be in the 'basic' courses for ordinary soldiers. As a result the odds of them crossing paths dropped to zero, as the two courses were on completely different schedules. And there was no chance of him destroying her things ever again, because there were dorm monitors and the girls were kept separate from the boys.

If he survived military training, then perhaps he wouldn't be a useless waste of space like he had been the first time around. She had not been surprised when Vernon died of a massive heart attack, or that Dudley was killed in a shoot out with some thugs.

* * *

Today was paint ball day, and to say Lal was looking forward to it was an understatement.

Since the teachers couldn't exactly give the kids under ten a _real_ gun, even with parental permission, they substituted the rifles with air soft and paintballs guns instead. Paint ball was a game that could teach the students how to shoot with a much lower risk of accidentally killing anyone. The worst anyone had ever gotten from the game was a nasty bruise and only those that passed the basic safety course was even allowed to join.

She had to wonder if Vernon or Petunia knew exactly what the extra summer courses were. God knew Dudley was going to be very unhappy learning that those who stayed over the summer months got to play paintball and a select few were given permission to practice with real guns.

He was barely keeping up in the officer courses as it was. At this rate he might be very well dropped down to the same lessons she was taking.

Lal grinned as she held the paintball rifle in her hand. In order to make sure the kids didn't accidentally shoot themselves or freak out about the guns, they were permitted to fire off a few test shots so the teachers could instruct them on how to hold the rifle properly and how to reload. They were also given some red permanent markers, to act as 'knives'. The idea was that if you allowed another student to get that close to you, then it would symbolize the same damage that could be done with a knife.

It had taken her three shots to get the range on the gun, and know how much recoil she would be dealing with. There were caches of 'ammo' hidden all around the small forest, some in very unlikely spots. You weren't allowed to use the ammo for the other team, as the summer lessons were only big enough for two groups. Sabotage, however, was allowed within reason.

If you were hit with a Kill Shot (head shots were discouraged, despite the fact everyone was wearing special helmets...everything else was fair game), then you had to walk to the "out" zone and wait for the next round to begin.

Lal was a member of the "Blue" team, which she found slightly ironic as a Rain.

She felt like an attack dog on a leash waiting to be set loose. These poor kids had no idea what they were up against.

The blue team was sent in first, as they had won the coin toss. It was to prevent any 'accidental firing' from either side and to give them the advantage.

She found a reload spot rather quickly, one that was meant for her team. She made sure to mark it and then found a perfect spot to snipe the red team without being seen once the game started properly.

As this was the game for the younger years, it would be impossible to set any 'traps' up to catch the unwary. Besides, this training doubled as a fun way to get the kids used to firing guns and hunting each other.

She wouldn't be surprised if it also gave the teachers a better idea of who would survive real military training and would likely enter the service once they were legally old enough to do so.

Hearing the air horn go off, Lal didn't bother to fight back the feral grin.

_Outside the forest_

When the first set of 'Red' students came out of the forest after ten minutes in, the teachers were merely amused. Four or five wasn't that unusual.

It took them several long minutes to register something rather important...that each student had been hit with a perfect one-hit kill shot from a blue team member.

"Goddamn sniper! Who the hell is up on that ridge anyway?" complained the red team's captain.

"Ridge?" asked Professor Arnold. He had been a member of the SAS back in the day, and now he was stuck teaching due to a bum knee.

"Some jerk from the blue team is sniping us," complained the red team captain. "We can't get within ten feet of the creek without shots being fired or another man down!"

Professor Arnold knew of the creek...there was only one ridge nearby that would provide decent enough cover for a sniper that was within range of the cheap paint ball rifles they had given the students.

"Worst part is that we could see some of the extra ammo for the red team and none of us could get near it," complained another.

Professor Arnold had to hide a smile. It sounded like someone on the blue team had a good grasp of ambush points. By leaving a supply of extra ammunition out in the open, it turned anyone from the opposite team into a perfect target. Add in the fact they were able to snipe another student with something as boring as a paint ball gun, and it meant the shooter might be slated for 'extra' training later.

So when the air horn went off, and the blue team came out of the forest, the teachers paid special attention to figure out who the sniper was.

Most of the blue team were very confused, as they hadn't actually _seen_ the red team members. Several of them had grouped up together to try and find the red team so they could start the game.

Only one member of the blue team seemed quietly smug about something.

Lilac Potter was something of an anomaly in the academy. Her family had made it clear that she was nothing more than an errant troublemaker and that any punishment necessary to keep her in line was considered 'acceptable'. Her aunt and uncle also made it clear that she was to be kept as seperated from her cousin as possible, and that special treatment should be given to the other boy.

The reality couldn't be further from the truth. The girl they were warned was a 'troublemaker' gave them the least amount of problems, even if she wasn't a morning person at all. She was usually the first one up, her things were well kept and she was generally the most prepared for the morning run and only gave the bare minimum of grumbling during basic training. Her grades were in the top ten, and she almost seemed bored during class despite being able to understand the material.

Dudley, on the other hand, was a spoiled brat who complained far too much and was simply a bully. He might have been thrown into the officer training courses, but he certainly _wasn't_ officer material. He was always the last one up in the morning and was extremely lazy. He never took care of his things, was often reprimanded for his slovenly habits, and he kept attempting to steal the food of others until the teachers made it _very_ clear that such behavior simply wasn't acceptable.

Worse, he kept calling his much smaller cousin a freak and would attempt to pin the blame of any of his own misdeeds on her, despite being nowhere near the area and with an airtight alibi to boot.

There was something deeply wrong with that family.

When the second game started, the teachers paid close attention to Lilac.

Some of them even snuck into position, and noted with some shock that she was able to tell where they were but did nothing about it.

It only took a few minutes to ascertain that Lilac Potter was the mystery sniper.

"That girl is going to go far, you mark my words. She's a natural sniper!" said Professor Emily. She was one of the few female teachers in the school, and the one in charge of the female dorms.

"I have an idea... why don't we switch the courses the two cousins are taking?" suggested Arnold.

"What do you mean?"

"Dursley is far from officer material, and he's consistently at the bottom of the class. Whereas Potter has been in the top ten, if not the top five with consistency since she started this school, and she's trained her ass off during basic to the point she's usually the first one to finish. The fat lump paid for one of them to be in the officer track and the other in the general track... nothing said we couldn't switch their lesson plans around and I highly doubt the Dursley child is going to complain about having an 'easier' course guide," said Arnold.

You could hear the disgust in his voice when he called the 'general' courses easier. The only difference between the two was that the officer lessons was that they were held to a _much_ higher standard and were given harder lessons on top of extra training. After all, an officer had to act as an example of leadership for his men in the field and thus more was expected of them.

Dudley had thus far shown he was more 'lackey' than 'leader'. He would be much better off with the general students.

Besides, Dursley was going to get _exactly_ what he paid for... one student in the general course and one in the officer.

Lal looked at her new lesson plan with interest. Her original one was rather light on the lessons and had plenty of time for personal training.

This new course guide left very little free time, and had several lessons that looked more like a lighter version of what she went through in officer training school when she was in COMSUBIN.

Hearing Dudley brag about being given 'special permission' to drop several classes gave way to suspicion. Especially when she realized that her new lesson plan meant that she would no longer be in the same classes as her friendly acquaintances she had made.

Was it possible the teachers _deliberately_ switched their lesson plans, putting Dudley into the general courses?

By the end of the second day she was sure of it. She knew Dudley was a lazy, boorish braggart who only got away with half the things he did because he was bigger and more inclined to violence... never mind the fact his parents did nothing to curb his bad behavior and were more inclined to ignore it entirely by blaming her.

An evil gleam entered her eyes. Well, if the teachers were going to switch their lesson plans around, she saw no reason to half-ass it like she had been.

Though she was still debating on whether to attend Hogwarts or not.


	2. Chapter 2

For the first time since being sent off to military school, Lal was spending her summer in Surrey. She had a pretty good idea why, too.

Her eleventh birthday was coming up, and that meant the Hogwarts letters would be sent. On the plus side, Vernon was a lot less vicious towards her after she came home with several recommendations for secondary academies which could easily translate into military service straight out of high school.

Dudley had also learned _very_ quickly not to complain about his 'freakish' cousin getting into officer training while he had been demoted into the general courses. Sure, it meant the teachers liked her more than him, but the general courses were a lot less restrictive and he had more time to goof off, even if he still wasn't able to bully the other students like he wanted.

Though the one time Dudley tried to bully his cousin, Lal made very sure he wouldn't repeat his error by breaking his arm using her 'new' martial arts training to kick his ass.

She had gone from a timid wallflower to an absolute demon only idiots would cross, and she hammered that lesson home with a carefully controlled dose of killing intent that had Dudley pissing his pants in fear of her.

All in all she was _very_ pleased with the ways things had turned out. So when the Hogwarts letters came and she saw the pinched expression on her aunt's face, she made sure to make a rather pointed commentary on how ridiculous the entire letter sounded.

"Witchcraft and Wizardry, really? Where are the English and science books? Where is the math and basic economic texts? What sort of backwater school lacks even the most basic of basic textbooks required for a _real_ education?" said Lal loudly in disgust. She skimmed down further, though she already knew what it said. "Robes? Are we expected to walk around in bathrobes or something? It doesn't even say where to get the materials for class!"

Seeing the expression on Petunia's face, Lal knew she was earning brownie points with her aunt.

"And really, what sort of school relies on _messenger_ birds," said Lal in disdain. "Am I supposed to hold out my arm and expect a trained owl to show up?"

Petunia's looked distinctly satisfied at the way her niece picked apart the ridiculousness of the same school that had taken her sister. It was clear Lilac wanted nothing to do with it, and would almost certainly rather join a more advanced military school instead.

Still for the sake of humoring the idiots, Lal wrote a distinct "No thank you" letter. She made it clear she wasn't about to bother with such frivolity when she would rather put her energy into more useful pursuits.

So you could imagine how furious Petunia was when McGonagall showed up in person, to "explain" things to the girl and try to convince her to attend Hogwarts.

Once again, Lal surprised her aunt.

"Ms. McGonagall, while I am not surprised magic exists, I see absolutely no reason to attend such a backwards school. There wasn't a single real textbook on the list, let alone any directions to where I am supposed to _buy_ such materials or how I am supposed to reach the school in question. Never mind the fact I had very little ability to send a return letter to the ones running it save to hope that a trained _bird_ would appear to carry off the letter," said Lal patiently and flatly.

"It's Professor," said McGonagall crisply. "And what do you mean there were no real textbooks on the list? It's the same one handed out to the first year students for the past ten years!"

Lal reached into the book she had stashed her letter into.

"And yet there isn't a single phone number to contact the school or tell the parents how to reach their children. I also don't see any science, math, English or god forbid a proper world history text on the list of books, to say nothing of the required wardrobe. No _real_ school requires robes these days, and I see nothing indicating a physical education course," said Lal crisply. "And you have yet to show any proof that you are a legitimate teacher or hold any real credentials."

Petunia was quietly smug as her niece ripped apart the older woman's attempts to convince her to attend Hogwarts.

"There are no phones in Hogwarts. Mail is sent out by owl and there are a few Floo connections that reach outside the school," said McGonagall.

"I'm almost afraid to ask if there's even a proper internet connection in this...school."

"I have no idea what this intra-net thing is, but if it requires electricity then I'm afraid you'll have to do without," said McGonagall.

Lal's expression said volumes.

"I believe we're done here. Good day madam, and please don't come back," said Lal flatly.

McGonagall looked somewhat taken aback by the girl's behavior. Normally muggleborn were quite eager to learn about magic, if only to control their new abilities and find out what else they could do.

"What about your inheritance?" she blurted out.

"My _what_?" said Lal, pretending to be baffled.

McGonagall cast a glance at Petunia and seized upon a chance to hopefully change the girl's mind.

"Your parents, particularly your father, left an inheritance behind for you. However in order to claim it you would have to visit the bank, as it's inaccesible to muggles," said McGonagall.

Lal had a look of irritation on her face.

"This sort of information would have been useful to know, especially since no one bothered to tell me _how_ I was supposed to access the bank, much less contact the school with my reply!"

McGonagall flinched at the accusations. The simple fact was that she had no way of countering it.

_A short time later..._

Lal was deeply unimpressed with Diagon this go around. Though she did feel immense satisfaction when she broke one wizard's wrist the moment the customers in the Leaky Cauldron tried to swarm her a second time.

"Is it normal for _grown men and women_ to swarm an eleven year old girl?" she asked icily. "I find it deeply disturbing that you people think it's acceptable to crowd a child like that."

The glare she gave made most of them back off, though it was nothing compared to the disapproving expression on McGonagall's face.

"I apologize for that, Ms. Potter, they should have known better," she said curtly.

Lal kept her opinions quiet. There was no doubt in her mind that if McGonagall knew how low her actual opinion was of the magical community, it would have made her weep.

Then again, Lal had hated the magical community ever since she discovered what sheep they were. They simply weren't worth saving in her opinion.

The trip to the bank was informative...just not in the way McGonagall would have liked.

At the very least if she knew the thought process of the child next to her, she would have been terrified to be in the same country, much less the same vicinity as her.

Lal took one look at her gold, remembered all the shit the Goblins put her through last time because of the war and the fact they broke into the place, and had to hide the evil grin on her face.

She never really got to enjoy her gold last time, after all. What with all the fees and shit the goblins kept trying to tack on as punishment for breaking in.

Well that and she didn't know the fun of blowing shit up using HE rounds and C4.

She was soooo abusing her trust fund to get a proper munitions cave set up that she could carry around. She had heard things about Newt Scamander's infamous case and she wanted one for herself...just with heavy artillery and a shit ton of guns, just to start.

* * *

"Aren't you a little young to be buying alcohol?" asked the homeless man she approached.

"That depends. Are your morals too upright to buy an eleven year old mass quantities of booze, some of which you can keep to yourself on top of the 'extra' cash I'm giving you so that you can get a decent meal?"

"...How much did you say you wanted again?" said the homeless man with respect.

"I only want the cheap stuff that only idiots would drink that is mass produced. If you have a preferred brand feel free to slip it in the bill," said Lal.

"I like you already brat. Any reason for the booze?"

"I'm going to be teaching children how to make Molotav cocktails and spreading chaos, anarchy and destruction in a boarding school... well that and introducing idiots to alcohol to recoup what I spent, since they're too young to know what the good shit is," admitted Lal.

Gryffindors would buy anything alcoholic.

The homeless man went into the liquor store and brought back quite a bit of booze...though one bag he kept for himself. Lal made sure to pay him _very_ well, enough to keep him fed for months if he paced it right along with more booze.

"Pleasure doing business with you," said the homeless man with a grin.

"Take care of yourself. If you stick around here I'll be back next year to buy more."

The man saluted her with his newly acquired bottle of bourbon, and was pleasantly surprised when she saluted back like a proper soldier would.

Clearly she was a military brat who recognized him as a former soldier down on his luck.

_In another part of London..._

"Aren't you a little young to be buying this sort of ordinance?"

"Really? An American is going to complain about the fact that an eleven year old is going to be using heavy ordinance against idiots and so called 'reformed' terrorists too stupid to know what a gun is, let alone a claymore?"

"...How much did you say you wanted again?" said the American arms dealer.

Lal Mirch's grin was almost as big as the dollar signs in the man's eyes when he realized how much the girl was planning to buy.

"Oh and before I forget..." said Lal.

She immediately pulled him down to eye level, an unholy gleam of barely repressed violence in her gaze.

"You try to turn me into the cops and I will make your name dirt among arms dealers. Help me create the largest privately owned collection of firearms, explosives and any number weapons that would make the law nervous in the hands of a private citizen and you'll find me a generous customer. Turn me into the cops and I'll happily track your arse down and insure there's not enough left of you to fill a bottlecap, much less a matchbox."

The American sweated for a moment, before he had to ask.

"Why do you want so much weaponry anyway?"

"Long story I just came into my inheritance, and nothing tells people to shut up and follow orders like tap dancing from being shot at. Besides, I want to get a head start on several people who have screwed me over, such as a hippie pacifist who thinks it's better to 'reform' a terrorist rather than filling him with enough hot lead that metal detectors will find him in a shallow grave."

He twitched.

"Did you say a hippie pacifist was letting _terrorist_sgo, rather than brutally murdering them?"

"Neo-Nazi terrorists that come from old blood, old money and not a lot of sense following a hypocrite."

"...Muggleborn?" he asked cautiously.

"Half-blood."

"I have only one question. Are you taking this shit to Hogwarts?"

"I'm going to gather an army of minions and start off with teaching them the basics of how to make a Molotav cocktail before easing them into turning Death Eaters for target practice. That is, in between supplimenting my armament fund by selling some of the cheap booze to the Gryffindors."

"Can I interest you in some 'decommissioned' guns and explosives as well as the owl addresses of several like minded weapon's developers all too happy to unleash their unstable creations into the magical enclaves in exchange for funding/volunteers for their weapons?"

Lal's eyes gleamed.

"Do you have a catalog?" she asked hopefully.

"Several," confirmed the American cheerfully. "And may I say it's a pleasure doing business with such a delightful and charming young woman such as yourself."

"Bullshit. You're just glad to find a fellow gun nut who has no problem with wanton death and destruction in a country where guns are almost impossible to get in civilians hands."

"Well yeah, but the money helps too!" he cheerfully admitted.

* * *

Lal boarded the Hogwarts Express with far more enthusiasm than she did the first time she saw it.

Vernon was surprisingly fine with her existence in the house when she calmly informed them that the _only_ reason she was going to Hogwarts at all was because she didn't want to lose her inheritance. The Ministry and the Goblins had made it clear that unless she attended school for five years, she wouldn't be allowed to inherit anything more than her trust vault. And that was only because she was a woman.

The Dursleys might hate magicals, but after seeing the gold coin she casually dropped on the table they agreed to table their dislike of magic because Lal wasn't above bribing them to ignore her very existence save to sign any documents and to insure she got into a military high school later.

It was probably a good thing her newly design armory was in her brand new expanded suitcase. Apparently Scamander had made the enchantments he had used on his own known and thanks to the wonder of magic she now had enough guns, ammo and explosives to take down the entire school.

Not that she was going to be _satisfied_ with such a limited armory. She was used to having a _massive_ gun closet after a habit she developed back when she was working under that complete moron Iemitsu.

Every time he royally pissed her off (which was very often), she would use his credit card to buy a new gun, ammo case, or just something that could do a lot of damage in a short time in the right hands. She never bothered with nuclear materials...she wasn't stupid after all and that was far more regulated...but by the time she died, she had a massive armory that could outfit a small army for at least a decently prolonged battle against a sufficiently armed group with proper funding.

Some people found comfort in drinking or counting money. Lal found comfort in having a large scale armory that she could then use to shoot people with.

As Lal settled into the train, she couldn't help but feel this was going to be a _long_, agonizing five years. At least until she got to shoot someone.

That always cheered her up.


	3. Chapter 3

"Ravenclaw!"

Lal resisted the urge to cackle as she walked calmly to the Ravenclaw table. While she hated skirts, she loved the fact it allowed her to carry a 'small' handgun in a way no one would really notice. It was fully loaded and having it on her provided no small measure of comfort.

With the sorting over with, she mentally started making lists of what she would need to do in order to establish herself as someone who was not to be fucked with.

First she had to get used to being in Hogwarts again. Decades of abandoning her magical heritage in disgust and having to adjust to the curse had left several memories rather patchy at best. And having to deal with Dumbledore's idiocy all over again was almost certain to be quite grating.

The most she could remember of her initial foray into Hogwarts was that someone was trying to steal a stone, a few unicorns were killed, and she went through a ridiculously easy trap course with a possessed professor at the end of it.

Which reminded her...she needed to get back into the habit of double-checking her mental shields before she went anywhere near Snape and Dumbledore.

Viper had been quite incensed when they found out how bad her shields were... she had to pay quite a bit of gold for the Mist to create all new ones because her original mental shields were less than useless.

That wasn't to say she was helpless... years of being tormented by that damn spell had allowed her to detect whenever someone was trying to break in and she took inordinate pleasure in being extremely vicious about retaliating. It also gave her ample practice in learning Legilmency herself, though she rarely bothered with it.

_'I wonder if my animagus form is still accessible...' _mused Lal. It had been so long since she bothered with magic that she had almost forgotten half her skill set that had made her so dangerous to be around when she was motivated.

Mind made up, she decided to wait until the weekend before she snuck into the other entrance to the Chamber of Secrets to test out how much her actual skills had deteriorated.

Which gave her plenty of time to reacquaint herself with the idiocy of the magical fools who believed themselves wise because they could do a few fancy tricks with their sticks.

And just as she suspected, it was her own personal hell.

She was a military woman, so being around actual children was a complete nightmare for her.

At least she was able to get her stretches and early morning run in before breakfast. So long as she was at the table when the doors opened, the teachers couldn't stop her. After all, she never left the Ravenclaw tower before curfew was _officially_ lifted.

* * *

Lal looked at the food on the table in disgust. Fatty, salty and overly sweetened...the only decent drink was water and there wasn't any coffee to be found. She grabbed a few fruits and made a note to head straight for the kitchens the _second_ she got her schedule.

Flitwick noticed her, and was kind enough to give it to her a bit early.

"Professor, where are the kitchens?" asked Lal politely.

Best not to display any prior knowledge on where to find things.

Flitwick not only gave her directions, he also told her how to get in. Lal thanked him and headed straight for there.

She not only got a _decent_ breakfast, she was also able to secure some healthy snacks and coffee in the mornings once she was done with her stretches.

She checked her watch, and walked straight to her first class. At least she wouldn't have to put up with the Slytherins as much.

Draco walked up to Lal, his intent fairly clear. Since she had managed to hide behind the latest _Guns and Ammo _when he came looking for her on the train (she switched it to _Modern Mercenary_ after about an hour and had a lifetime subscription to both) so he never got a good look at her.

She was just glad that she was able to get some contacts. She hated wearing glasses...they were too easily knocked off, and she had been so busy that she forgot to acquire the potion that had fixed the issue last time.

Lal waited for Draco to come up to her before she said anything.

"Before you try to annoy me with an offer of friendship, _cousin_, I would like to remind you that your father is not here and I would hardly be impressed with a child who insists on hiding behind his daddy's skirts every time things don't go his way," said Lal without hesitation. "So if you genuinely want me to consider you a possible equal then you had best be prepared to put out a good showing, otherwise you'll just embarrass the house of Black."

Complete and utter shock, and she barely had to glance past her magazine to see the calculating look on Draco's face.

"What does that mean, _cousin_?" said Draco.

So he was aware that they were related to the Blacks.

Lal paused in her reading and looked at him. It was akin to facing down a mothering dragon with the way he flinched.

"I'm saying the only way I would even consider associating with you as a potiential ally or acknowledge the fact we're related in public is if you're willing to put in the effort and actually show you're capable of being your own wizard, rather than whining to Daddy every time things don't go your way. A true Slytherin would have the brains not to be sorted there after all, especially with the way the headmaster and the old cat favor the lions," drawled Lal. "At least in Ravenclaw they won't keep an eye on my actions too closely, especially if I read a lot."

Lal wanted to smirk at the dumbstruck expression on Draco's face, as if the concept of a Slytherin_ hiding_ their cunning and ambition behind the guise of a bookworm had never really occurred to him.

"Prove to me you don't need to hide behind your father's robes to get things done, and then we'll talk about being friends. I'm sure your mother would be thrilled at the change."

Draco left her alone, but there was a speculative expression on his face for weeks after.

Lal felt some satisfaction that her swift action with Draco resulted in the Slytherins leaving her alone. Those that didn't...well, there might be rules about fighting in the corridor but none of them mentioned an asskicking without magic involved.

* * *

When the first flying lesson came, she was stuck with the Gryffindors because she managed to catch a nasty cold and was too stubborn to visit Madam Pomphrey for some pepper up.

Lal rolled her eyes as her hand lashed out, snagging the hapless lion.

"Granger, chill. A broom is nothing more than the magical version of a bike," said Lal annoyed.

"A bike that hovers in the air!" she pointed out.

Lal eyed the girl's broom, and then her own. She kicked off enough to hover for a few minutes with no issue, before landing.

"Swap brooms with me."

"Why?" asked Hermione.

"Because I've just demonstrated that my broom isn't nearly as temperamental as Longbottom's, thus still has the standard safety charms. Grant you, these do look like they're overdue for replacement but at least I've proven mine is still reasonably safe to use. And if that doesn't convince you, I do know the cushioning charm. The worst you'll get from the ground is a minor bruise or sprained limb," replied Lal bluntly.

Hermione considered this for a moment, before silently swapping brooms with her. Neville was still too shaken from the impromptu flight to even _consider_ getting on another broom.

Lal had to hide a smirk when Granger _reluctantly_ got into the air.

Lal could tolerate the girl in small doses...but her morals were ridiculous and she needed to learn that not everyone appreciated the way she got on her high horse about them.

Neville seemed to follow her around after class hours like a puppy when he realized underneath her rough exterior she was the nicest person in school.

Lal had zero hesitation convincing Neville to join her after classes to do light jogging around the lake in order to get him in shape. He might be huffing and puffing, but he would see results sooner or later.

* * *

Lal stared Snape down. The man had found an excuse to drag her into detention, and it was clear he was starting to debate on whether to treat her like her father...who even Lal would admit from the pensieve memories she had seen of the man was a total prick who needed a kick in the ass...or as an extension of Lily, who Snape had been in love with but had the woman he cared for taken from him by the man he absolutely _loathed_.

Lal hadn't argued, as she would rather get this annoyance over with.

If nothing else, she could use her limited skill over Mist to project the man's slow and very painful demise...which would happen in short order if he proved he was going to be a liability. It wouldn't take much either...she knew how to make a home-made bomb and setting it so that it exploded from underneath a cauldron he was used to brew a volatile potion would be more than enough to insure his departure from the living.

Snape shivered from where he was grading papers, only occasionally looking up to insure the "Potter brat" was still scrubbing cauldrons as ordered.

He had to admire her efficiency...she was already half done and it hadn't been more than twenty minutes already into the hour-long detention. She would pick up a cauldron, take the scrub brush and with ruthless determination had it spotless enough to suit even _his_ demanding standards within a few minutes of hard scrubbing.

When she finished with her task, she waited for him to take notice of this fact and allow her to leave early.

However that was not in the cards, as Snape was determined to be his usual dickish self.

It took all of a second for Lal's patience to snap...but then again she had never been very patient with _wizards_ or their arrogance after the war.

Snape stared down the muzzle of the gun being held expertly by an unamused female dragon with all the warmth of the arctic in her eyes.

"Let's get one thing straight asshole. I don't care about your justified hatred of James Potter or the fact you still harbor feelings towards my mother, despite the fact James' petty jealousy of her original relationship with you caused the rift that made her run to him. I also don't care about your justified dislike of werewolves or Sirius Black. If you keep taking out your childhood grudge out on me, I _will_ make you regret it in short order and this is the only warning I'm going to give you in regards to pissing me off. Do. Not. Fuck. With. Me. I can murder you and not lose a lick of sleep about it at night, and there's no way the magical courts would be able to pin it on me because they know shit about muggle methods of killing," said Lal perfectly blunt and dead serious.

Snape tried to regain control over the situation with a sneer.

"Do you really expect me to be fooled by your little toy, Potter?" he spat.

"Oh good, I get to demonstrate how much of a threat I am," purred Lal.

Thanks to the silencer on the gun, no one heard it go off and clip Snape's ear.

The man paled, realizing that the 'toy' was in fact very much the real thing and Potter was not messing around. She was as cool as a seasoned Auror and definitely knew how to use the gun in her hand.

"It's amazing what six and a half years of military academy can do for one's ability to use a fire arm, isn't it..._professor?"_ said Lal, with an unhinged gleam in her eyes. "Especially when it comes to getting a little early start on sniper's training and a vault full of gold that can easily give me access to a plethora of all sorts of fun toys to take someone out with."

Snape felt the spectre of death lingering over him, even as a chill ran down his spine.

There was absolutely no mercy. No hesitation in explaining in clear words that she would end his life without qualm. The expression in her eyes made him more terrified than facing down an irate Dark Lord in his prime when he was the one who had failed an important mission.

The Dark Lord would have tortured him, made him plead for mercy and if he were extraordinary lucky he might get out more or less alive, if praying to a god he no longer believed in that the pain would end soon.

This girl though...she would kill him without remorse or a second thought in the matter if he crossed her, and it wouldn't even be _personal. _In her mind, he would be nothing more than an annoyance, a mere _obstacle_ in her way that needed to be removed with an efficiency that utterly _terrified_ him to his core. He wouldn't even have a chance to beg for his life...she would straight out put a bullet in his skull if he got in her way.

Snape would be privately happy later that despite the utter terror he had been in at that moment, that he didn't void his bowels at the sight of her gaze.

Dear gods...what the hell had turned the innocent babe his precious Lily had given birth to into this demonic dragon from hell?!

(Lal's expression when she found out that her _impression_ on the man who once made her school life...and potion's class in particular...an utter headache was now terrified of her to the point he ran the risk of pissing himself when faced with her full ire? The only way to describe her reaction was to say that the Black blood ran truer in her than it ever did her father...her grandmother Dorea would have been proud.)


	4. Chapter 4

**As a special birthday pres from me to you, I will be posting a few stories as full ones!**

* * *

If there was one holiday Lal _loathed_ above all others, it was Halloween. She had nothing against the concept of the holiday itself and everything to do with the date in question.

Bad luck always followed her on October thirty-first, starting with the murder of her parents.

It took her several moments to remember what nuisance happened this _particular_ Halloween, but when it did she wanted to roll over and groan.

Right...Quirrelmort let a troll in to distract Dumbledore and the teachers so that he might have a chance to make it past Fluffy. In the process he nearly killed Hermione because Ron had shown an incredible _lack_ of tact and sent her crying to the bathroom the troll happened to crash into.

Yeah...not going to happen this time.

Lal had no desire to see the feast, and even _less_ desire to actually celebrate it.

The _second_ the last class was over with...which happened to be Charms, Lal was fully prepared to make a beeline to the kitchens.

"Ms. Potter, a word," said Flitwick.

Lal paused in exiting the classroom.

"You don't seem to be in the festive spirit today."

"Give me one good reason why I should celebrate the very holiday that my parents were murdered on, and had brought me nothing but bad luck," said Lal bitterly.

Flitwick hid his wince well, but she still saw it.

"Are you going to be alright?"

"I'll stay in the kitchens until the feast is over. That way I'll still get fed, but avoid being reminded of a holiday I hate. Everyone is so eager to 'remind' me of my title as the Savior, but they conveniently forget the price I had to pay for that fame," said Lal tiredly. "I really don't want to ruin everyone else's fun."

Flitwick patted her on the arm in a show of support. There was a reason she still thought of him fondly even after she abandoned England.

Lal headed straight for the kitchens with a book to keep her occupied until the feast was mostly over. She had no desire to celebrate anything today.

"Little miss should not be in here! The feast is not ready!" chided a house elf.

"Please spare me the Master speak. I know you lot are devious little fuckers perfectly capable of putting any number of wizards on their ass before they can even cast a spell, and I am simply not in the mood to deal with it," deadpanned Lal. "Besides, I have no intention of going to the feast anyway. I just want someplace I can mourn my parents and those I've lost in peace without having _children_ trying to get me in the mood of a holiday I hate."

The house elves paused, ever so briefly, which she took as a sign she had surprised them. Good. She hated having to deal with their cryptic speech because the _wizards_ expected subservience.

She radiated enough apathy that one of the senior elves gave her a measuring look.

"Normally we'd let you stay here until the feast is over, but considering how excited we are to surprise the children..." said the elf.

"...Can you deliver it to the Come and Go room instead then? That way I don't interfere with your preparations and I can get some peace and quiet until the night is over and not have to deal with anyone."

The elf nodded, and Lal left the kitchens. Once she was on the seventh floor, she made a beeline straight for the tapestry and created a doorway to a sniper's playground. She wanted to work off some steam and blowing shit up with her rifle sounded like a _fantastic_ way to do it.

Lal noted the presence of food (and a small selection of candy, mostly chocolate) and paused long enough in her one-woman war against imaginary targets long enough to eat.

Then her eyes gleamed and she was fully prepared to go back into attack mode when she remembered something important.

"Right...Hermione and the troll. Let's see if things played out like they did last time..." said Lal.

On the plus side, it was a troll which was decidedly more fun to play with than enchanted targets and allowed her to get her bloodlust out properly.

Downside, she would have to do some quick bribery of the bookworm to keep her damn mouth shut if the girl saw anything. Good thing she knew Granger's weakness to knowledge.

And wouldn't you know it? Hermione still got cornered by that damn troll because Lal had been in a foul enough mood to leave the other children behind and Granger had the bad luck of being cornered by Ron the Tactless who decided to mock the girl who liked reading.

Lal was going to give that brat an earful before telling his mother _exactly_ what happened and then watching the fireworks. Perhaps a little Weasley-style humiliation would temper her mood.

Hermione screamed, and then had to gape stupidly when she suddenly realized that the troll wasn't killing her...because it was far more concerned with the hole in it's leg.

"Hey you ugly fucker, over here! I got a nice treat for you!" cat-called Lal with far too much glee.

Hermione's eyes were as wide as saucers at the _behemoth_ of a gun Lal had in her hands.

"What in god's name is _that_?" she squeaked in horror.

"It's a specialized sniper rifle. Total pain in the ass convincing that arms dealer to give me a discount, but sooo worth it!" cackled Lal. There was a massive _boom_ followed by an explosion of blood, brain matter and bone.

Hermione felt a little sick seeing it, in all honesty.

"You okay?" asked Lal, looking entirely too happy with the death of the troll.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Guns are illegal!" hissed Hermione.

"...I literally just blew up a troll's head with a sniper rifle and _that's_ what you're worried about?" said Lal amused.

"Why do you even have that?" said Hermione, still in shock. It was probably because of the gun in Lal's hands, or the near death experience.

"I'm a gun junkie who plans on joining the military the _second_ I turn eighteen. Besides, arms merchants will happily sell military grade hardware to damn near _anyone_ so long as they get paid. On an unrelated note, did you know that the magical cops won't even bother charging you with murder if you use a gun instead of a wand?"

"What."

Hermione's voice was flat.

"So long as you don't use an enchanted weapon or a blade of some sort, they _literally_ have no way of determining cause of death, much less have the ability to charge you. I could walk up to Snape right now, shoot him in the head and no one would be able to do anything because they have zero idea what a gunshot wound even looks like."

"That is totally ridiculous!" said Hermione.

"I dare you to look at the most current law books in the library to prove me wrong. Or better yet, ask Susan Bones of Hufflepuff what the standard procedure is for investigating a case where a gun is used on a wizard, rather than a wand or a blasting curse."

Challenge clearly accepted, Lal was quick to hide her 'toy' as she lovingly called it and went right through the same doorway that had teleported her halfway through the castle in the blink of an eye.

Hermione, being no fool and in no real mood to be caught in what she thought of as a crime scene, followed her without hesitation.

(She would only discover with dismay that Lilac was not joking in the _least_ that wizards had absolutely NO laws against guns or their use. And that Susan, who was the niece of the current head of the DMLE, had zero idea of what Hermione was talking about when it came to gun laws. Finding out Lilac could legally own an entire armory of modern weaponry was somewhat terrifying and oddly comforting at the same time.)

* * *

Lal actually loved quidditch, but it was _very_ boring watching the amateur teams fight over their points. And to be honest she also vaguely recalled a near-death attack on her person via Quirrelmort during the game, only this time she wasn't in the air and the only method she could think of that he would have at his disposal would be to sabotage one of the bludgers.

Getting attacked by rogue cannonballs when she wasn't in the air was not something she was interested in. Besides, she _almost_ had her animagus form unlocked again and she wanted to have that down pat before all hell really broke loose.

The only question was how to kill her summers, because truce or not she _really_ didn't want to spend any second longer with the Dursleys than she had to.

Then it hit her... normal kids went to summer camps, didn't they? If she worded it right she could visit Italy or some other country a little early and not have to deal with the idiocy of England for a while. Best of all with the aversion the adult Dursleys had of her, it wouldn't take much to trick...er, _convince_ Vernon into it. After all, he kept taking Dudley with him to Majorca.

Maybe some of the pure bloods would know of magical summer camps? Or perhaps she should get some ideas from the first gens.

"Summer camps? What's that?" asked Penelope.

"It's like a sleepover with lots of fun activities where kids do art projects, group sports, and general bonding," said Lal. "I was wondering if the magical enclaves had anything like that or if I should stick to the non-magical side."

"Can't say I've ever heard of such a thing," said Penelope. "Generally speaking most parents prefer to keep their kids close to home and only allow them to socialize with small groups of friends and rarely let them spend time away from the protection of their wards."

"Are you talking about summer camps?" asked Hermione.

"Yeah, I was wondering what sort of camps the magical side of things had to offer, since I know my uncle would happily pay for one if only to get me as far away from the house as possible. There was a reason he was so quick to send me to a year-round military boarding school after all," said Lal.

"My parents usually take me on vacation," admitted Hermione.

"So these 'camps' are normal for muggles?" asked Penelope, curious.

"It's a good way to for children to socialize outside their comfort zone and gives the parents a break from their kids. They usually only last a few weeks to a month and have all sorts of fun activities for kids to enjoy," said Hermione.

"I suppose it makes sense that the magical enclaves don't have them... they are ridiculously closeminded and prefer to keep things in-house."

"What is that supposed to mean?" asked Penelope.

"Do you have _any_ idea how often the pure blood family trees intersect together? Everyone is related to everyone else, it's only a matter of how close and how often the bloodlines cross together."

"I'm almost afraid to ask," said Hermione.

"I'm related to Draco Malfoy through his mother," deadpanned Lal. "I'm also related to the Weasleys through both their parents, though it's more through their mother because she was a Prewitt who married into the Weasley family."

Hermione stared at her.

"How are you related to that complete cad Malfoy?!"

"Because his mother was originally a Black, and my paternal grandmother was her great aunt," replied Lal without hesitation. "Families don't get the word 'Ancient' added to their title for nothing you know."

Hermione stared at her. Penelope took it all in stride, as she already knew most of this.

"Anyway, if the magical side of things is out, I guess I'll have to go non-magical."

"Let me guess...military camp?" said Hermione.

"They don't have them, except for the older kids at least fifteen plus. Unless they did something to get into trouble, which means they'd be sent to a mandatory boot camp and most of those wouldn't interest me," said Lal without hesitation.

Mostly because the _female_ boot camps were all pathetic in her opinion and she didn't want to accidentally be labeled a troublemaker.

"Isn't it a bit early to be thinking of summer vacation? I mean Christmas hasn't even hit yet," said Hermione.

"Please, first year exams are a breeze... they don't want to tax children just now learning how to use a wand. I might as well do something productive with my time, since I already know what the final exams for firsties are," said Lal rolling her eyes.

"Isn't that cheating?" said Hermione scandalized.

"How is it cheating to ask the older students what the final exams for their first year were about and study ahead so that they can focus on more interesting applications of magic?" asked Lal confused. "I mean the only wildcard is Defense, and that's because the teacher changes every year."

"..."

Hermione was torn. One on hand, Lal essentially had a 'cheat' to what the exams were and got to avoid a lot of useless studying. On the other hand she got to free up her time for more interesting and useful applications of magic.

"Do you think the older students would tell me?"

"I'll give you a general list," said Lal with a pat on her shoulder. "Just remember to help Neville with his studying so he can come out ahead in the written work until we figure out why his practical is so difficult."


	5. Chapter 5

"I am so bored," said Lal, putting her head in her arms. She was as prepared as she wanted to be with the end of year exams...not that she needed more than a minor refresher, but still. She didn't feel like training, the weather wasn't the least bit conductive for flying, and there wasn't much point in reading when everyone was studying so hard for their tests.

So you could imagine her surprise when Professor Flitwick asked her into his office.

"Is there a problem sir?"

"In a manner of speaking. I've noticed that you don't seem very challenged in class," said Flitwick. "It's not the first time I've had a student who needs a little more challenging in their coursework."

"You mean like Hermione?"

"Ms. Granger is a good student, but she doesn't have the same instinctual grasp of magic that you do. She's far too close-minded and sticks too much to the source material. Perhaps when she opens her mindset she could be a great witch, but right now what she needs is more socialization instead of book learning."

"...The teachers tend to skim her work because it has too many minor details that are best left out, don't they?" said Lal sweatdropping.

Flitwick coughed, neither confirming or denying it.

"In any case, it would be a great disservice as a teacher to allow one of my students to be held back because of your age. Which is why I'm going to be giving you a special test at the end of the year to see exactly what your true level is, and come up with a lesson plan for you."

"Are you sure sir?" asked Lal surprised.

"It is the teacher's job to ensure a student properly flourishes, and holding you back on account of the other students would only stunt your true growth," said Flitwick firmly. "And as one of my Eagles, I intend to see how far you can fly while using this school as your nest."

Lal grin was rather infectious...there was a reason she always liked Professor Flitwick over some of the other teachers. He actually cared about his students, and listened to what they had to say.

Which was why Lal put actual effort into refreshing what she knew of magic, particularly charms. She wanted to see what else Flitwick could teach her when he wasn't using the same kiddie gloves for everyone else.

When exam time hit, Lal eagerly awaited her charms test.

She wasn't disappointed. Right from the very start Flitwick went straight from third-year level charms and continued to progress in difficulty until she had to actually _think_ about how to get past the little obstacle course he had set up.

Then came the final part of the exam. She had to face Flitwick and cast the most advanced and difficult charm she knew. She would admit she was a bit rusty considering she had to combine some of the lower-year charms to get this far, but she felt pretty confident that she would get a really good grade.

Lal was so glad pensieves were a thing, because the wide-eyed shock on Flitwick's face when she cast a _corporeal_ patronus was one memory she'd cherish for a very long time. Considering the difficulty level of the spell, she had always considered it a baseline when it came to her magic training.

For most it was the visualization and the power levels that made the charm difficult.

However there was one thing that had her frown.

"Just as I thought...it's not a stag," said Lal in annoyance. "Tch... just how long is that idiot going to haunt my steps?"

Where the stag used to be was a very familiar falcon. For some strange reason just _looking_ at Falco made her feel as though that idiot student of hers was standing at her back, ready and willing to stand by her side or even jump into a curse he knew nothing about to protect her.

Lal felt unexpectedly irritated... that damn idiot, haunting her even now.

"I must say, I never expected you to have reached that level of control with your magic," said Flitwick. "Full marks, across the board. It would seem you would be wasted on the normal curriculum below fifth year, but I cannot allow you to join those lessons for a few years yet."

"I had a feeling," said Lal. She was somewhat exhausted, but she looked pleased with herself. She wasn't as out of shape as she thought, but she did spend a lot of time training or practicing. And casting the patronus was magically exhausting, so it made her core grow far more than the paltry first year spells ever could.

"In light of recent events, I believe a compromise would work best... I want you to help the other students under fifth year with their homework."

"I can do that."

"And in exchange, I'll personally instruct you on the weekends in the art of dueling. I would hate to see your potential in combat charms wasted when it could flourish under the proper training."

Lal perked up at that. Her own training had reached a rut, and learning _real_ dueling as opposed to on-the-go warfare with limited magical training sounded _right_ up her alley.

It was as she was heading back to her dorm, tired but happy, that it happened. She had honestly forgotten Quirrelmort.

Waking up in that chamber staring at the mirror was rather annoying. Especially when she saw _his_ face staring back at her older self...only with matching wedding bands and wearing what could only be a wedding dress with him in a military uniform used for formal occasions.

The second she saw that, any thought of faking it died.

"What the fuck are you trying to show me, you shitty mirror?!" she demanded, completely red in the face.

The odds of that idiot falling for her twice were ridiculously low to begin with, much less having that sort of ending.

Lal was so pissed off she barely even noticed the stone dropping into her pocket. All she wanted was to take her inexplicable rage out on a worthy target, and wouldn't you know it? The possessed Defense teacher made a very _tempting_ victim of her wrath.

Lal's eyebrows were twitching rampantly as she took out her semi-automatic gun and started using Quirrelmort as target practice.

"Dance, fucker dance!" she cackled.

By the time Dumbledore arrived, Lal had gotten bored and killed Quirrelmort...and then promptly called one of the elves to deliver her to the dorms.

She wanted a hot bath, some food and a well deserved nap after the long day she had.

* * *

_A few days later..._

"How did you get into the advanced courses?!" demanded Hermione.

"Professor Flitwick noticed how bored I was during class and took me aside and offered me a deal. I had to get through an obstacle course where I had to use my magic to escape and then cast the most advanced and powerful charm I knew of for my grades. Apparently the charm I used is something that would have gotten me an O in the secondary magical exams because of how hellishly complicated and magic-intensive it is," said Lal shrugging. "As a result instead of having to do the written work he wants to see if I can get other students to improve their Charms grades while he teaches me dueling on the weekends," said Lal.

"That is so unfair!" said Hermione, huffing.

"Are you mad because I don't have to do the written course work, or because he didn't offer you a similar deal?"

From the expression on Hermione's face, it was mostly the latter.

"Hermione, the reason he didn't offer you the same thing is because you rely too much on what the books tell you. He said you need to broaden your horizons more."

"What does that mean?" demanded Hermione hotly. Neville tried to make himself smaller.

Lal pinned her down with a stare.

"You take the books as gospel and never try to expand the range of what is possible with your magic. Simply put your mindset is too restrictive to achieve your full potential and the teachers generally skim your homework without properly reading it because you have a bad habit of adding too many minor details. They _like_ the fact you bother to remember that stuff, but they don't want to waste their time reading about it when you could be showing them how deep your understanding of your craft is instead."

Hermione flinched.

"What should I do?"

"Loosen up. Try to put the theory books down for once or learn to try and read some fantasy for a change. While muggles can't use magic, their imagination when it comes to what is possible more than makes up for the lack and they often come up with some really good ideas. I know for a fact there's a lending system among the Ravenclaws when it comes to fiction and fantasy novels because it often helps the upper years come up with interesting breakthroughs for their personal projects."

Lal planned to bring a ton of fiction and manga novels for the unofficial library. If only to kill her boredom.

* * *

_Somewhere in France..._

"Holy cow, who's that total cutie over there?" said Gerry.

"What cutie?" said Cole.

"Over there! That girl with the green eyes and black hair! She gives off a totally different feel than the other girls, ya know?"

Cole looked to where his casual friend was pointing, and stared.

That face, those features, the aura of an indomitable will combined with the fierce passion of a tiger on the prowl... Cole felt his heart beating wildly at the very sight of her.

She wasn't some untouchable beauty, but rather held herself with all the confidence of a mature older woman who was perfectly comfortable in her own skin and wasn't ashamed to show it off. At the same time, her clothes were casual and had the feel of someone all too happy to get down and dirty with the boys and show them who the real top dog was.

The other girls immediately gravitated to her, as did the weaker boys. She seemed to have a vibe of a "mature, older sister" who was fond of her younger siblings to the point of being nurturing, even if she tried to hide behind a wall of thorns.

Cole had the strangest feeling of deja vu looking at her. He _had_ to meet her.

"Hey Cole, where are you going?"

"Hey there sweetheart... I thought angels were supposed to stay in heaven?" said Cole without thinking.

The girl's face twitched, and suddenly the calm, mature older sister vibe she had going on disappeared in an instant.

"Sweetheart?" she repeated, dangerously. "Let's get one thing straight blondie..."

She grabbed his collar and brought him down to eye level with her. His heart beated rapidly staring into those vibrant green eyes. There was a passion unlike anything he had ever experienced behind her gaze, as well as a drive to succeed.

"I'm not sweet..." said the girl... before she punched him hard in the gut. "And I don't have a heart."

Cole felt the wind going out of him, and seeing the irritation she had on her face he fell even harder for her.

"Can I at least have your name?"

"Lilac," she replied. "And for the record, I am _not_ interested in dating."

"Cole, you alright?"

"...I think I'm in love," said Cole, staring after her.

That weird feeling of deja vu was only getting worse. It felt rather natural to tease her and be told off by the irate woman, who was at least two years younger than him. At the same time he couldn't help but be drawn into her rhythm and followed her orders naturally.

_A week later..._

Cole was out taking a walk since he couldn't really sleep. For some reason he kept having strange dreams.

Dreams of an older woman with _brown_ eyes that looked like an adult version of Lilac wearing military fatigues and carrying a sniper rifle. She held an aura of command about her, but at the same time there was no doubt in his mind that she genuinely cared about her subordinates.

Either way he couldn't get Lilac out of his mind.

It was as he was heading back that he heard something. It sounded like someone was trying to skip rocks on the lake.

Curious, he went to find out who else was up this late.

And was caught completely by the sight of Lilac trying...and failing miserably...to skip rocks.

"Dammit! How hard is it to skip a freaking rock against a lake?!"

Cole had to hide his laugh. Her expression right now was seriously too cute for him to take. The amount of energy she was putting into doing something as ridiculous as skipping a rock was rather adorable.

Lilac nearly gave him one nasty black eye when he walked up behind her.

"You're putting too much force into it. Here, let me show you."

Okay, so he _might_ have cheated a little with a bit of wandless magic to make it repel against the water for a few seconds, but he was trying to look better in front of a girl he really liked.

He tossed the rock in a calm, smooth motion and it skipped seven times before sinking.

Lilac picked up another rock, and tried again. Her movements were a bit jerky, but the rock still managed to skip at least once.

"See?" said Cole gently.

He couldn't tell under the limited moonlight, but he would swear she was blushing slightly.

It was strangely relaxing, tossing rocks under the moonlight. At least until Lilac noticed the time.

"You're seriously cute when you're trying to be serious, you know that?" said Cole.

"Shut up, you idiot!" said Lilac.

He would almost swear she was blushing.

_Lilac POV_

It was official. She was in her own personal hell because of that boy.

Cole reminded her painfully of a younger, more naive Colonello to the point it was almost unbearable to be around him. Worse, the idiot was clearly a budding masochist of some sort if the way he kept coming back despite all the time she kicked his ass was any indication.

It was torture...the more time she spent around that idiot, the more she was reminded of her foolish student who was so brazen as to jump into the middle of an unknown curse for her and continued to try and win her affections even after she fell into despair. No matter what she threw at him or how many times she rejected him, that blond fool would come back.

Though in the end, perhaps she was the most foolish of all.

Lal wanted to smack herself.

She didn't have time for romance or painful memories. She had to deal with the idiocy of England and make it back into COMSUBIN so that she could see him again. If she lost sight of her goal now, she might as well throw in the towel entirely.

In the end she would always be another soldier reporting to stand at the ready against the wolves at the door.


	6. Chapter 6

Lal was walking down the corridor of the train, having 'borrowed' a Gringotts house elf to get her and her trunk to the train station well before the appointed hour.

Honestly, why would she bother going through all that hustle and bustle when she could _pay_ the goblins for the use of one of their bonded elves to get there in a snap along with her things, thus freeing her to complete her summer homework _literally_ at the last second?

Lal hummed to herself. If she played her cards right, she could probably trick the Malfoys into selling her Dobby, thus giving her a loyal (read: rabid) minion willing to be her enabler.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a book, before happily diving into the fantasy novel she had bought.

It took her a few hours to register the presence of others.

"Nice of you to finally join us," said Hermione. "How long have you been reading that?"

"...What time is it?"

"About ten," said Hermione.

"Then for the past four hours."

Hermione stared.

"You've been on the train for the past _four_ hours?"

"Actually I've been here for four and a half hours," corrected Lal. "I didn't see the point of returning to my relatives in Surrey when it was cheaper and faster to stay at the Leaky Cauldron for three days and bribe the goblins to let me use one of their bonded elves to get me here in seconds."

Plus side, she finally had her own broom. Too bad the Firebolt was hellishly expensive...and still in development.

"Why would you come so early though?"

"I already did my shopping, plus this meant I could avoid the rush of trying to get here on time," shrugged Lal.

Hermione tried to change the subject.

"What's a 'bonded elf'?" she asked.

"I think she means house elves," said Neville.

"A what?"

"Think brownie spirits, only instead of milk and honey they feed off the inherit magic that comes off manor wards and magical lines. Almost all the older families have them, though some of the less savory ones treat them as little more than slaves."

"That's barbaric!" said Hermione appalled.

"Yes, well the system has been in place for a while and every so often a muggleborn gets it in their head to try and 'free' them, but it only pisses off the pure bloods and nothing get done about it. Mostly because they keep insisted that the house elves should be paid when the only thing a good elf actually _needs _is the little bits of excess magic that is given off by their masters. An elf wouldn't understand _why_ it needs to be freed, just that a human took it away from the only life it's ever known from some concieved idea that freedom was 'better' for them without even asking," said Lal. Seeing Hermione didn't get it, Lal tried a different approach. "Imagine a black child that had been placed with a white family suddenly being taken away from a pair of loving parents simply because of the color of their skin and placed with a black foster family that only agreed to take them in for the money."

Hermione winced at that. When she put it like that way, trying to forcibly free a bunch of elves without even asking was unimaginably rude.

"So how was your summer?"

"It was rather exhausting. I had to deal with a masochistic idiot who kept coming back for more no matter how much I barked at him," said Lal deadpan and without hesitation.

Hermione sweat-dropped.

"Why would you bark at someone?" asked Neville, rather confused.

"She means she yelled at him the same way she does the twins when they get out of hand," clarified Hermione.

"So how did you like the present I sent you?" asked Lal.

"It was really nice! I was finally able to use some of those arrangements that were in the book and I have a new greenhouse set up just for exotic seeds," said Neville happily. "I think I caught Gran looking at the book you gave me for Christmas a few times... she was the one who introduced me to the standard floral arrangements used by pure bloods when I asked."

As they chatted about their summer, Lal relaxed slightly. So far, nothing of importance seemed to be happening, compared to how her year went last time.

Though she paused when she saw a car flying outside the window.

"...Is that Ron Weasley?" asked Lal.

"I think it is. What is he doing?" said Hermione with disapproval.

"I'm going to find Percy or the twins. They should be warned about their brother's idiocy."

Percy was beyond furious, and made a point to alert McGonagall the _second_ they arrived at the station. To say she was beyond pissed was putting it very mildly.

* * *

Lal groaned audibly the _second_ Dumbledore announced Lockhart as the defense teacher.

"Anyone else want to ask Professor Flitwick if he can start an extracurricular dueling club so that we actually _learn_ something about defense this year?" she asked loud enough for half the great hall to hear her. Including Flitwick, who seemed openly amused by this comment.

"You're not even going to give Professor Lockhart a try?" said Penelope upset.

"He's a glorified media whore, and anyone who spends _that_ much time on their appearance isn't likely to know much about the actual subject outside of how to run away the fastest and then making sure he didn't chip a nail," deadpanned Lal. Several boys nodded in agreement to _that_ comment. "Besides, Professor Flitwick is a champion duelist and quite a bit of the spells we learn in DADA are in fact battle charms. I refuse to waste an entire year's worth of Defense magic training because Dumbledore hired a damn glory-hound who couldn't have possibly done half the things he's claimed."

Dead silence.

"Explain your reasoning," said Roger Davies.

"Check the time frames in the books. They don't match up at all and in some cases they conflict entirely. He claims to have defeated a werewolf, and then in another book said he defeated a banshee at least two countries away...in the same day. No mention is made of port keys and if you researched the events in question I bet you anything the reports would say that someone _else_ was responsible for dealing with the problem," said Lal bluntly. "After all, he's an _honorary_ member of the Defense League which means he hasn't submitted any actual proof of his deeds to become a FULL member."

Complete silence as this sank in to the logic-driven minds of the Ravenclaws. She could already see several females vowing to prove her wrong, so she sweetened the pot.

"If you can give me _one_ shred of proof that isn't forged that he actually did two things that he claims from the books, I'll pay you fifty galleons. And I'm opening up this bet to all four houses," said Lal loud enough for the entire hall to hear her. "Consequently if you find a way to prove Lockhart a complete fraud, I'll double it."

Lockhart...actually looked worried at hearing her declaration to pay anyone who could either prove or disprove his books.

Flitwick took Lal aside after the feast.

"You did that deliberately, didn't you?"

"That man is a glorified fake who steals the accomplishments of others. The only spell he's actually good at is the Obliviate charm, and I bet you anything he got the details of how the problem was dealt with before taking all the credit to make himself look better," said Lal flatly. "The money was just incentive to get the students genuinely interested in researching whether or not he's the real thing or not."

Specifically a pair of devious twins who wanted to set up a joke shop.

A month later, Fred and George managed to present her with a diary. Lockhart's diary, to be specific.

Once she confirmed it was the real thing, she sent it off via owl to Amelia Bones...and paid the twins a hundred galleons, making a point to count them out so they knew they weren't getting cheated out of their hard-earned money.

"What do you plan to do with the money anyway?"

"Don't let our mum know," said Fred.

"But we want to start a joke shop," said George.

"...Considering what I've seen of your work, you two might actually be successful at it, so long as you had enough capital for it. Enough to make Zonko's consider you a proper rival for the market anyway. Don't you two have older brothers?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" asked Fred confused.

"Why haven't you owled one of your older brothers outside of Hogwarts to see if they can't set aside a bit of gold here and there to help jump start your business venture? You could even tell them that if things don't work out, that you would get an actual job to pay them back. Make it a family business."

"Not sure that would work... Mum would never allow it," said George. "Besides, I don't think they make that much anyway."

"Why do you say that?"

"Have you seen our school supplies? We barely managed to buy Ginny a wand," said Fred depressed.

"...Are you sure it's not because your parents are too proud or embarassed to accept the money they've offered to give them so that you can have better things? For that matter, why haven't your parents thought to put aside a bit of your father's paycheck during the months you're at Hogwarts to pay for school supplies, since they save on the household expenses having their children out of the house?" asked Lal.

Seeing the stunned looks on their faces, Lal pinched the bridge of their nose.

"Look, owl your brothers and explain the idea of saving up so you can start a shop. If they say no, then come to me and I'll introduce you to a concept known as a 'small business loan'."

"A what?" said George.

"Muggle banks lend out money to their patrons using 'loans'. A small business loan is an agreed upon sum which the prospective business owner shows the bank their business plan and offers up collateral. If the bank agrees, then the patron is given a set amount of money to start the business with and has to make payments back towards the loan given with a set amount of interest."

Seeing the interest in their eyes, Lal waited.

"And you would be willing to give us one of these...loans?"

"We can make a written, _binding_ agreement that we can have the goblins authenticate for us that will come with a seperate vault your mother will know nothing about. I will put a set amount of gold inside, and you can use it freely for supplies and buying the actual shop. In exchange you will make me a partner in the business once it's fully operational," she said bluntly. "However if you want me to believe you're serious about this, I want something from you in return."

"Name it," said Fred immediately.

"I want you to both get at least five O's in your O.W.L.'s, so I at least know you understand the material enough that you won't botch anything later," said Lal. "Besides, this will help convince your brothers that you are serious about owning a shop."

"Deal," said George.

A few days later, the twins borrowed Joan to send off a letter to Bill. You could imagine their surprise when he agreed to help set aside some of his paycheck to help them start their own shop, regardless of how their mother felt about the matter. Especially when Lal sent him a rough draft of the agreement she had made with the twins regarding the loan.

On the plus side, the act cemented the idea that Lal was like a younger, female version of Bill in the minds of the twins. Even their mother couldn't get them to behave as easily as Lal could.

* * *

Lockhart's arrest and subsequent banishment from the castle left Dumbledore with a real problem. Namely the fact that the so-called cursed had taken out the teacher before it was even Halloween, and that blowhard had been the only person to apply for the job in the first place!

Some of the teachers had to rotate who would teach the class until a replacement could be found.

Ironically it was the instigator of his current headache that provided the perfect solution.

Namely in the rather _loud_ complaint asking why the headmaster didn't simply hire an Auror or Unspeakable on medical leave that was stuck doing desk work to teach until the year was over, because teaching couldn't possibly be as dangerous as field work.

Besides, the curse had already claimed the 'yearly sacrifice' as she so bluntly put it, so what did they have to fear since it was only temporary to begin with?

One owl to Amelia later and he had a new teacher to replace the idiot. An Auror who too old for _real_ field work, but not quite old enough to qualify for full retirement. Considering the most he would have to do was dodge and grade papers, it was an easy way to tick off his last year as an Auror without having to put in too much effort so long as the students passed their exams.

Lal felt somewhat vindicated...now, to deal with one _other_ annoyance that she distinctly recalled from her second year.

While the immunity to snake venom was nice, the headache she had to go through for it wasn't worth it. Never mind how the entire student body shunned her for something she had no control over.

How the hell was she supposed to know that snake-speak was considered 'evil' when she had only started to learn about magic?

Lal headed down to the Chamber of Secrets, once she confirmed Fawkes had his burning day already. Worse case scenario, she would call him for help.

Once she was before that _extremely_ tacky relief, she hissed the phrase she remembered all too well.

_~Speak to me Slytherin, Greatest of the Hogwarts four!~_

The mouth opened just as she remembered, and the great snake slid out. It hissed, and slithered up towards her. Not that she could tell _where_ it was outside of the sound...she had her eyes firmly shut.

_~Who dares to summon me?~_

_~I am Slytherin's Heir through rite of conquest. I ask that magic test my claim to be true, and if false may it strike me down where I stand.~_

Considering the number of stories about 'Rite of Conquest', and how the victor won the spoils...never mind the fact that Riddle had twisted his magic beyond repair in his quest for power, she had high hopes that this would work. Besides, she already had the parselmouth ability.

A vague thrum in the back of her mind began to grow, until it reached into her very soul. Something deep within tested her claim, and she had no doubt if she failed she was dead.

She felt something sticky began to bleed from her forehead, trickling down her face...before the thrum stopped and settled.

Some instinct told her it was safe to open up her eyes, so she did...and stared straight into the gaze of the basilisk.

It's tongue flickered out of it's mouth, before it coiled around her protectively.

_~Mistress,~_ it hissed with pleasure and affection.

She wiped off her face and found a black ichor. Closer inspection revealed that the curse scar was inflamed.

It seemed Magic had decreed she was the true Heir of Slytherin as she had hoped. And had purged that damn scar for her.

_~I'll work on getting something that you can go into. You shouldn't have to remain in this drafty sewer with limited food,~_ she told the snake. _~Also, did Slytherin ever give you a name?~_

_~My name is Nidhogg, Mistress,~_ hissed the snake.

She stroked it's nose, which it bopped into affectionately.

_~I'll try to visit more often, but you are to take no orders save from me, regardless of the source. If anyone else comes down here and attempts to order you, I want you to chase them out. Understood?~_

Nidhogg hissed in agreement.


	7. Chapter 7

Lal woke up to a slightly bony body snuggled up against her. It took her a moment to figure out who it was, before she sighed and merely wrapped her arm around Luna.

In the span of a month and a half after the removal of Lockhart, and the poor girl was already being bullied.

Oddly enough, the dorms this year seemed to have split off and given Lal her own room. Apparently the first year was to get them used to being away from home, before it split up and gave them individual rooms that they had to then customize in order to show their ability to use magic properly. It was a system set up by a rather frugal head of Ravenclaw who didn't approve of how much gold was being spent by students on frivolous things, like curtains.

As it forced the students to actually _work_ in order to have lavish rooms, the system stayed in place.

Lal's room was slightly sparse, as she had no need for a fancy room. However what little she did decorate with had solid enchantments and didn't come apart like the other girls. The second month back she had spent and entire week helping them with their charm work so that their rooms at least looked a little pretty.

Fortunately Flitwick was fine with Luna sharing her dorm, so long as her grades were kept up. A quick summoning charm proved the story that she was being bullied by the other girls, as they came flying from the dorms of the third and fourth years, which Luna had no access to.

Though by this point, the fact Luna was directly under the protection of "Lilac Potter" had become known so the worst of the bullying stopped. She didn't move back into her old bed however.

And so Lal had gotten used to the willowy blond using her as a teddy bear at night. She didn't mind it overly much...she missed Luna.

_Two weeks later..._

Ginny went down like a sack of bricks, though Lal was nice enough to use a cushioning charm on the floor immediately after stunning her.

With expert ease she stabbed the dagger she had coated with Nidhogg's venom into the diary, making sure to muffle the sound of the screaming, before calmly carrying the girl on her back straight to the hospital wing.

"Madam Pomphrey? I think Ginny might be an early bloomer because I found her in one of the lesser used restrooms freaking out over some blood," said Lal with a straight face. "She refused to calm down, so I had to stun her."

Madam Pomphrey took the girl off of Lal's back, and hit her with a diagnostic charm.

"What on earth? Ms. Potter, was Ms Weasley carrying anything...unusual?"

Lal produced the diary. She had stabbed it between the pages, so the damage wasn't immediately visible. However it looked quite filthy from the blood and ink that had come from the hole she had made with the dagger.

The nurse looked quite dismayed to see the condition.

"Thank you for bringing her in. I will be sure to alert her elder brothers about this, if only to avoid the teasing," said Madam Pomphrey.

Her job done, Lal went back to Ravenclaw tower.

It was strange, ending another school year without a 'life or death' mystery hanging over her head. Once again, Ravenclaw dominated the point spread, which made Flitwick happy.

She had already signed up for Runes and Care, which were the only two she actually _liked_ (no way was she signing up for Divination _twice_).

She had the feeling that she would be 'volunteering' to act as Hagrid's teaching aid for the year, since she was far more well versed in magical creatures than half the class and he desperately needed _someone_ to keep him from going overboard.

Case in point, those damn Blast-Ended Skrewts. She would _happily_ aim an owl in Newt Scamander's direction in hopes of temporarily luring the Mythozoologist back to Hogwarts to help show off his magical creatures if it meant avoiding those awful things.

Odds are he would be all for it, since Hagrid loved the 'misunderstood' creatures as much as that man did.

Lal sighed and relaxed into her seat, a happy Luna sitting next to her.

"So what are your plans for the summer?" asked Luna dreamily.

"Same as last year, summer camp. The one I go to allows people to go until they're fourteen, unless they sign up to act as counselors. Most don't, since it means they have to babysit kids who have never been away from home much and by that time they're more interested in dating," said Lal.

Hermione looked at Lal with concern.

"Your family seems rather...quick...to send you off."

"It's an unspoken agreement between us. They ship me off to places I can agree with that wouldn't look out of place for 'normal' kids, and in exchange they can pretend I don't exist. I get to enjoy more freedom than most, do something I actually enjoy that's mildly productive, and they can pretend that their 'freak' of a niece was never dropped on their doorstep in the middle of fall like milk bottles without even asking if they wanted to raise me," said Lal dismissively.

Hermione was clearly appalled by how dismissive she was being. It was clear there was no love lost between Lal and her family.

As the train reached the station, Lal made a beeline for her uncle. After a short trip to Gringotts, once again dumping her trunk in her vault so that she didn't have to deal with it (this time she completed her summer homework before boarding the train...it took her all of an hour), she was promptly given tickets and sent off on a plane the next morning.

It felt good to be as far away from magic as possible.

_Two days later..._

Lal was rather happy that Vernon was more than willing to ship her off to the same summer camp just to be rid of her for several months. He seemed to rather enjoy their arrangement, since it meant she spent _months_ away from his nice normal home, and he could honestly claim she was doing something _normal_ that had nothing to do with magic if asked by the neighbors.

By this time most of their neighbors had figured out that the Dursleys wanted nothing to do with their niece, and were more than happy to toss her into boarding schools and out-of-country summer camps to spend as little time around her as humanly possible while still providing for her.

Petunia had even been so kind as to agree to sign her Hogsmeade slip, and the copy so that she could visit the village.

Though in reality Lal was planning to expliot a little known loophole in the system.

Namely the fact that nothing said they had to _stay_ at Hogsmeade. So long as she was back by dinner, no one would be able to claim she wasn't at the village instead of somewhere far more interesting, like London.

The Knight Bus was a headache to ride, but more than worth the fact they would pick up stranded witches and wizards anywhere for a fee and take them someplace else within a minute or two.

"Hello beautiful!" said Cole cheerfully.

Lal blushed. She wished the blond didn't remind her so much of Colonello. It was almost painful to be around him sometimes.

At least she wasn't likely to see him after this year. The camp was only for fourteen and under, and Colonello was a year and nine months older than she was.

It was rather nice, being a _normal_ girl for once. A pity Luna couldn't come, she was sure the blond would have had a lot of fun here.

And then Cole did something that threw her off.

"You did _what_?"

"I signed up to act as counselor next year," he repeated cheerfully. "This camp turned out to be way more fun than I thought it would be!"

The glint in his eyes said otherwise. He had signed up for_ her_. It was strangely touching, but fortunately hormones had yet to make an appearance so she didn't embarrass herself.

Sadly that didn't last the entire camp. Lal woke up one morning and groaned in dismay when she realized she was experiencing cramps.

God, how she _hated_ puberty. It wasn't bad enough she had to go through it _twice_ (the second time being when the pacifier around her neck fell off without any warning), but a third time was really too much.

It took all of twenty minutes to be given a brief, if highly embarrassing talk, enough supplies to last her until the end of camp so long as she managed it properly, and she was sent on her way.

(She was mortified when she found out they had called her aunt to alert her of the fact she had started her first period. It was not going to be fun shopping for supplies before school, because it meant they had to spend actual time together.)

Cole, oddly enough, picked up on the fact she had just started the time of month every woman _hated_ the second he saw her.

She said nothing when he discreetly slipped her a few chocolate bars.

"How did you know?"

"I am literally one of ten guys who hasn't married into the family, and I have a _ton_ of female relatives. Trust me, you pick up on 'that time of the month' pretty damn fast in that environment and how to deal with it," grimaced Cole.

Lal stared at him.

"How many female relatives?"

"I have thirty cousins, seven aunts of varying degrees of relation, a mom and two sisters and I'm the oldest of the three. I happen to be attending school with my older cousin, and I often get roped as her chaperon for family reasons," he replied. "What about you?"

"Only child, have one close cousin and too many distant cousins for me to bother counting, and my aunt and uncle are more than happy to ship me off to foreign countries for months on end so that we can pretend the other party doesn't exist," deadpanned Lal. "My parents died before I was two."

Cole took it as a good sign that she relaxed while talking about her family.

"So you're not French? I couldn't tell because you barely have an accent."

"I'm British, unfortunately," said Lal. "Personally I plan to move to Italy and join the military there the first chance I get when I turn seventeen."

Cole's eyes perked up.

"_You speak Italian?"_ he asked hopefully.

"_I know most of the Latin-based languages,"_ she replied in flawless Italian, to his delight.

The rest of her summer was spent speaking solely in Italian with him, which really made his day.

It was nice to speak a language she had spent most of her life using, rather than English. Most people thought it was her first language, oddly enough.

All too soon the summer camp came to an end and they had to part ways. However Cole was bolstered by the fact she planned to come again next year.

Lal took _one_ look at "Aunt Marge" and was happy about the arrangement she made with Petunia.

In other words, Petunia sighed the permission slip, and Lal discreetly went to London for the duration of Aunt Marge's visit after the first day.

Petunia felt no small amount of dark satisfaction when, after Marge went after Lal and made some snide comments about how the younger girl was going to be 'single forever' after spending so much time in the Academy, the older woman backed down.

Lal discreetly set Nidhogg, who could change sizes apparently, after Ripper. She actually liked dogs, but that mutt was a complete menance and Marge refused to keep him restrained. She still vividly remembered Ripper's father chasing her up that damn tree and forcing her to spend four hours up it the first time.

Even if she avoided it this time by simply being in the academy.

The morning before she left, she heard the sweet sound of Marge having a heart attack from finding her 'beloved pet' dead in his sleep.

With any luck that obese bitch would croak alongside the dog and she would never have to deal with her again.

From the look in Petunia's eyes, she wasn't alone in hoping for that particular outcome.

It was as she was about to summon the Knight Bus that she saw it. A massive black dog that was all too familiar.

She was actually rather prepared for this outcome, which was why she had a collar and leash in her pocket.

Lal hid a smirk...she was going to prank the hell out of Sirius and enjoy it. The old Marauder would likely get a laugh, once he got over the shock anyway.

It was all too easy coaxing the 'stray' over to her, and to put the collar around his neck. What Sirius didn't know was that it was specially enchanted to prevent him from turning back.

This year was going to be fun.


	8. Chapter 8

Sirius Black was in his own personal hell, and the one holding the whip was his sweet, innocent little goddaughter.

Sweet and innocent...those words made him laugh outright now. Little Lilac had gone from a happy baby to a demon who was all too happy to make him suffer through obedience training and being sent into a grooming salon. While being cleaned up was nice, having to endure the de-worming treatment and shots was not. And for the love of Merlin, why did Lilac have to name him _Sparkles_?

At least she fed him well, even if she didn't let him sleep on the bed.

As she boarded the train, with her new 'pet' firmly locked in the special expanded trunk, he had no idea the evil grin on her face.

Professor Flitwick had given her permission to have not only Fluffy, but _'Sparkles'_ as well so long as the other student didn't know about them and she took them out on walks regularly away from the castle. Though considering the dementors she would likely have to stick to the Room of Requirement until the end of the year.

"So what do you think is going to happen this year?" commented Hermione.

"Considering the Ministry said they would be sending 'special' guards to the school to find and capture Sirius Black... I foresee a lot of students lining up to learn the patronus charm, especially the upper years," said Lal.

"Why?" asked Hermione.

Both were politely ignoring the man asleep in the corner. Obviously he was the new Defense sacrifice...er,_ teacher_.

"Because the only thing I can see that half-wit Minister doing is sending _dementors_ to 'guard' the school, despite the fact it's full of children that belong to his supporters and the detrimental effects those creatures have on adults, much less underage wizards. Those things are abominations and should be destroyed," said Lal darkly.

"The Minister has always been infected with heliopaths. Father fears it's a side-effect of the Rotfang Conspiracy," said Luna.

"Don't be ridiculous. It's clear he's been infested by nargles and that the wrackspurts have been teaming up with them in order to make the Ministry three times as incompetent as it used to be. Besides, heliopaths prefer Italy," said Lal without thinking.

Dead silence.

Luna beamed at Lal, while Hermione looked like she had a headache.

"Why exactly would the upper years want to learn the charm?"

"Besides the fact it repels dementors? Using it during the two mandatory advancement exams is an automatic 'outstanding' in both Charms and Defense, especially during the Ordinary Wizarding Levels. It's a highly complicated spell that most adults have trouble with, so showing that you can create even a mist would be highly impressive. However if you can produce a _corporeal _one...well, that would definitely insure you got a high grade."

Seeing the gleam in Hermione's eyes, Lal inwardly smirked.

She was sure Professor Flitwick would help to teach the patronus charm to the students once they learned the benefits of it.

"By the way, guess who got a new dog?"

Hermione perked up.

"Really?"

"Professor Flitwick said it was okay to have him, so long as I'm discreet and make sure to keep him out of the dorms. Though I can't really take him outside with those _things_ around, I'm sure I can find a way to keep him exercised," said Lal.

"Does he have obedience training?" asked Luna sweetly.

"Do I look like the sort of girl who would skip out on that? I had him doing all the basic commands within a week of having him. Though he was such a big baby when I took him to the salon. I swear he was giving me a betrayed look at all the frilly bows they put on him, plus the nail polish. I named him Sparkles," said Lal innocently. "And don't get me started on the look on his face when I forced him to undergo a de-worming treatment. The vet said it was pretty bad."

"What does he look like?" asked Hermione.

Lal pulled out a picture of the dog. Hermione snorted.

"Figures you would go for a big one rather than a pampered pet."

"He's a total sweetie, especially if there's food involved. Poor thing was underweight," said Lal with a straight face. "And don't get me started on the mats it had in it's fur...I had to pay extra for the groomers to properly fix the old boy up."

The picture Lal had given Hermione was shortly after she had taken him to the groomers. She was sure Lupin would get a very good laugh out of it later.

A few hours in, the train abruptly stopped before it even reached the school. Hermione shivered at the sudden chill in the air and Luna whimpered.

"Oh hell the fuck no, I am not letting those _things_ traumatize the students any more than they will already!" snarled Lal.

She drew her wand, opened up the window and said in a clear, but pissed off voice...

"_Expecto Patronum!"_

Inhuman shrieks filled the air as Falco the patronus flew around the train, driving off the dementors. Like _hell_ was she letting those things drag up Colonello's death. Not when she had the power to make them back off.

Dead silence filled the air. Slowly, the train began to move again.

"God I _hate_ dementors," said Lal in disgust.

* * *

Within a week, Lal had convinced Flitwick to hold a special club to teach how to cast the Patronus charm.

Some (mainly those older than fourteen) were interested in the fact that being able to successfully cast it meant an instant high grade in their Defense and Charms exams. Most, however, were more interested in the fact it kept those horrible creatures as far away from them as possible.

As Lal had so eloquently put it, the patronus was the students best defense against the nightmares those wretched _things_ liked to inflict, and without the prisoners to feed them, they would almost certainly try to target the innocent students.

If it wasn't for the fact she knew how to defend herself against them and had come to terms with her nightmares, she would likely present a nice feast for those _things_.

On the plus side, she also managed to become Hagrid's official "TA". At least with her monitoring him, the other teachers could feel assured that she would keep him from going overboard.

And the other students respected her as a 'big sister' type, or found out very quickly what a bad idea it was to piss her off.

She had Buckbeak bowing to her within seconds after making eye contact, before crooning under the way she groomed his feathers.

She made sure to give the others a warning before they came anywhere near the magnificent creatures.

"This is your one and only warning. If I catch _any_ of you showing disrespect or arrogance around the hippogryffs, then it won't be their claws or beak that you have to worry about," she said, looking at Draco specifically. "Because by the time I'm through with you, walking into a mother dragon's nest will seem like a stroll in the park in comparison."

Draco took _one_ look at his cousin's expression, before gulping in fear. He could tell she was dead serious about making his life hell if he tried anything.

Rather than risk the ire of the 'Demon' as she had become known in the two short years she had attended school, Draco made a point to behave for once.

The entire lesson went smoothly, though Lal was quick to intervene in case the teenagers got too cocky around the hippogryffs.

They seemed to understand Lal was an Alpha female protecting the weaker 'chicks' from a less than amused adult and tolerated her presence even when she bore her back against them.

If anything the hippogryffs seemed to think of her as another one of their females.

Hagrid couldn't be happier with how things turned out.

* * *

Okay, perhaps she was being a tad bit too evil...but Peter totally deserved it!

Besides, some of Reborn's (and to a lesser extent Fon) trolling habit had stuck. She could get all the remaining Marauders in one go.

"Professor, what about illegal animagi?" asked Lal innocently. "I mean how do we know if Sirius Black isn't wandering around as one of the pets?"

Remus paused.

"That is a fairly good point, and I can see why you would be concerned," he conceded. "So why don't you all bring your pets with you this weekend and Professor Flitwick and I will teach everyone how to cast the animagus revealing spell. If your pet is a normal animal, nothing will happen, but if it's an animagus like Professor McGonagall, it will glow a red color."

Seeing he had the interest of everyone, particularly the Ravenclaws, Remus went to speak to Flitwick.

The half-goblin sighed in exasperation when he heard who came up with the idea.

"That girl is entirely too clever for her own good," he said fondly. "If it wasn't for the fact her main aspirations are all geared towards hard work, she would have made a splendid Slytherin."

Remus blinked.

"What do you mean?"

"Ms. Potter wishes to join the muggle military upon graduation. And she's been rather clever about discreetly manipulating things to the way she wants them, rather than following the flow of everyone else. About the only thing I can say about the matter is that she has no desire to use the power she's been acculmulating without noticing. At least not in the way Albus would like," said Flitwick fondly. "She likely knows there's an illegal animagus in the castle and wants to make it as public as possible when they are captured. Or at the very least create too many witnesses for anyone to sweep their existence under the rug."

"You think she found Sirius Black."

"I think she intends to expose something else, and Black is merely used to accomplish that," said Flitwick.

Remus looked forward to Saturday, even if it meant having to deal with far too many animals, including...cats.

It was as he was passing the Gryffindors that he spotted a far too familiar face, inside an obviously transfigured cage.

Peter Pettigrew.

Suddenly Remus knew _exactly_ why his pup had brought up the idea of 'unregistered animagi' in class and convinced him to teach the charm.

Of course that didn't stop the surprise and wicked gleam in his eyes when he spotted Sirius there as well, looking positively miserable in frilly bows, painted nails and fur that had clearly been to the groomers. As if that wasn't enough, he had a bright pink and silver collar around his name with glitter that proudly proclaimed his name was "Sparkles".

Remus took one look at Lilac who had an unholy smirk on her face whenever she looked at "Sparkles", and then at him.

"That is a fine hound you have there. Mind if I take a picture? I want to know where I could get one," said Remus.

"I have a whole photo album of them!" chirped Lilac far too cheerfully, causing Sparkles to whine in betrayal.

Remus was trying very hard not to laugh.

"Mind if I have copies?"

To his delight, she produced a rather large album full of blackmail.

"May I ask why his name is Sparkles?"

"Because of his 'sparkling' personality," said Lilac innocently.

Remus had to move away before he broke out laughing. Oh gods, if James were here now to see what his daughter had turned Sirius into...the hound would _never_ live it down. Remus would make sure of it.

Sirius gave him a betrayed look.

"Though you should have hear the fuss he made when I made him undergo that de-worming treatment. He's lucky I didn't pay the vets to neuter him as well," said Lilac, before Remus moved on.

Remus was having great difficulty not howling at the look on Sirius' face.

It seemed the traitor had found a hell worse than Azkaban...in the hands of his goddaughter.

Remus was going to remember this _forever_.

"Alright everyone, now that you have your pets and familiars out, we're going to be practicing the Animagus revealing charm and the charm to reveal humans who are hiding..." said Remus, with Professor Flitwick helping with their spell casting.

When they got to 'Scabbers' the rat was trying very hard to break out of the cage. Unfortunately for the rat, the twins had gotten much better at their spellwork.

Remus pretended to be surprised, but his frown was real.

"Mr. Weasley, do you mind if I cast the spell this time? We could be getting a false positive."

Ron stood aside, and Flitwick cast the charm.

Scabbers glowed red.

"Mr. Weasley, how long have you had this rat?" asked Flitwick concerned, as he started casting more spells on the cage.

"I got him from Percy. He found him in the garden."

Fred and George were frowning, as they had brought their new owl with them. Their mother had been a bit miffed that they had gone over her head and asked Bill if he would help to pay for one.

"How old is this rat?" asked Lilac, coming over with "Sparkles".

"About twelve years, I think?" said Fred.

"I think we need to call the Aurors. There's no way a real rat would live twelve years and still look that healthy," said Lilac. "Sparkles, guard."

Sirius was all too happy to do so, complete with growling. Peter looked _terrified_. Then again, despite how dolled up Sirius' canine form was, he was still a massive dog and his teeth would still rip his former friend to pieces.

After the shock of 'discovering' Pettigrew, the rest of the animals turned up clean. Even if Sirius' status as an animagus was busted as well, it was a small price to pay. He didn't move an inch from where he was 'guarding' Peter.

* * *

To say Amelia Bones was pissed was putting it mildly. A grown man had been found _sleeping_ in the bed of an underage wizard, and had been doing so for twelve years now. The Gryffindors were highly disturbed at how easily a potential predator had entered their tower...the fact the man was a former lion himself didn't help at all.

Despite Peter's protests that he had never touched any of the boys (or the girls), he was still put under veritaserum.

So was Sirius, but that was mostly because Potter had insisted that he answer _why_ he had 'betrayed' her parents since she couldn't find any evidence he had explained himself during a trial. And she had several of the older Ravenclaws help her to look.

You could imagine her disbelief when Sirius was more than happy to undergo the veritaserum treatment, and claimed he would be more than willing to give a wizard's oath he wasn't lying.

Amelia left Hogwarts with two prisoners, a headache and an appreciation for the cunning of one Lilac Potter.

It was hard to believe the girl wasn't a Slytherin with how expertly she played the adults around her to doing her bidding, all while making them look like it was _their_ idea in the first place.


	9. Chapter 9

Lal felt no small measure of satisfaction at the title of the _Daily Prophet_ after exposing Peter and Sirius.

Sirius had been given a slap on the wrist, cleared of all charges and Fudge was already trying to toady up to him after she made a 'small' suggestion about how to spin it in his favor so he wouldn't sweep everything under the rug like last time.

Peter, on the other hand, was occupying Sirius' old cell, this time complete with animagi wards considering his form. He even had magic-restraining manakles on him, to further insure he didn't escape.

Naturally because of how long he had been in Azkaban, Sirius wasn't allowed to properly 'meet' his goddaughter until she was out of school. He had to undergo mandatory therapy, all at the Ministry's expense.

Amazingly, the old dog had the sense to go to _muggle_ therapy, rather than rely on mind healers.

Best of all those damn dementors were removed from the school, though by this point most of the students had gotten _very_ proficient in casting the patronus charm. Much to the delight of Flitwick, a number of them could now cast a _corporeal_ patronus.

All in all, a rather successful year, even if she was bored to death for the rest of it.

Though perhaps the _best_ part was the fact she 'convinced' Snape not to expose Lupin.

"You want me to what?" said Snape in disbelief.

"Prank him for once. As in leave dog toys and other subtle reminders he turned into a wolf once a month... or you could go the other route and pretend he's a woman and you're merely showing concern about 'that time of the month', since he's been 'hiding' his real gender for years after a traumatic experience," said Lal with a straight face. "You should see the look on his face when I brought up that 'time of the month' when he tried to talk to me and how I was suitably understanding while going into far too much detail about a biological process that has absolutely nothing to do with him."

Snape stared at her, before an evil grin appeared on his face.

That sort of thing would drive Lupin up the wall. He'd either learn to live with it, or resign just to get away from it all.

"As for Sirius...well, I have a photo album of humiliating pictures while he was stuck in his animagus form and several videos of him being forced to undergo the de-worming treatment. Imagine the fun to be had seeing his expression when you bring _that_ up, especially since it was his own 'pup' that did it to him."

"How did you avoid being put into Slytherin?" asked Snape seriously.

"I focused more on the merits of which guns would look best in my armory and their rate of fire. The hat mistook me to be a gun-obssessed witch, rather than a sneaky bitch who isn't afraid to manipulate others," deadpanned Lal.

* * *

Lal was somewhat looking forward to summer vacation this year. Sure, it would be the last year she could see Cole at the summer camp, but she would also be spending a week with Sirius who was given temporary guardianship depending on how his psyche evaluation went with the Ministry's mind healers.

Of course that was also _heavily_ dependent on how they reacted to one another, but honestly at this point she mostly just needed an adult to sign any legal documents and make it _look_ like she was being cared for. In reality she was highly independent and didn't actually _need_ a minder to survive.

By this point it was fairly obvious she had been sorted in the wrong house by anyone with half a brain. All one had to do was look at what she had accomplished and they would see she had expertly maneuvered the 'older, wiser adults' around her into doing what _she_ wanted, rather than the other way around.

Too bad Remus decided to leave when the year ended. Partially to get away from Snape who was driving him batty, but mostly to care for Sirius who needed at least _one_ friendly face around him. Someone had to be the responsible party.

Sirius took one look at his goddaughter and smiled tiredly. The therapist was doing _wonders_ for his mental imbalance, even if he had to take a special prescription to stay on an 'even keel', in his words. Fortunately the man was a muggleborn, so Sirius didn't have to hold anything back about magic.

"Hi Sparkles!" chirped Lal wickedly, causing Remus to snicker over to the side.

"...You are pure evil," said Sirius flatly.

"Hey, I was nice enough to help get rid of all those parasites you picked up in dog form and didn't neuter you. Besides, consider it twelve years of payback for not taking your duty as godfather Sirius-ly," deadpanned Lal.

Sirius stared at her, before he let out a bark of laughter.

"Fair enough. Then again any woman capable of dominating a freaking Cerberus into following basic obedience commands without hesitation is someone who doesn't really need much supervision in the first place."

"I will state this out right now...there is no way in _hell_ I am living in Grimmauld place. Not unless you get a proper elf to clean it and do away with that damn portrait of your bitchy mother," deadpanned Lal.

Sirius stared at her.

"How do you know about the London Townhouse?"

"How good are your Occulmency shields?" she shot back.

Sirius had the feeling he was going to be in for a real shock by the end of the week.

He would be right.

Time travel, ancient curses, soul fire, the _mafia_...

He was glad his pup insisted on sharing her rather large stockpile of mundane booze by the end of it, because he had needed it by then. Never mind the fact that Lilac...or rather "Lal Mirch" had felt so paranoid about sharing the truth that she insisted on secrecy vows and a specialized fidelius to hide the information.

Considering what she said about the Vindice, which Remus surprisingly knew about, it was understandable.

"Why does it not surprise me that you've had contact with the mafia...which famiglia did you deal with?" asked Lal.

"None. I was acting as an informant for someone called 'Viper'," said Remus.

"Wait...you know how to contact that miser?" said Lal in shock.

"You know Viper?" said Remus at the same time.

"Hooded cloak, odd markings on their cheeks, likes strawberry milk and is a miser that charges for damn near anything?" said Lal. Remus nodded, though he hadn't known Viper liked strawberry milk. "I know them. Is there any way you can contact them for me?"

She might as well catch up on the rumors before she went _near_ the underworld. It wouldn't take much to activate her flames, though she was waiting to do it since it meant the Vindice would be watching her.

"I can try, though it might be expensive."

"If you find them, I'll pay for a basic information packet on all the relevant rumors," said Lal. "I've mostly stuck to France when I leave the country."

"Why are you going to France?" asked Sirius.

"Summer camp. I've managed to avoid dealing with the Dursleys by arranging things so that we spend as little time around each other as possible. Vernon and Petunia were _highly_ agreeable to the concept because it meant they didn't have to deal with magic after I turned seven."

Sirius, however, had a nose for blackmail.

"Oh _really_? I bet you have another reason for wanting to go," he said, eyes gleaming.

Lal flinched.

"I am not discussing my summer plans with you, you damn hound dog!" she snapped.

"Look, it's only for six weeks. You can tease her properly when she gets back, or you could go pick her up from camp when it's over," said Remus.

"You too?" said Lal irritated.

"You set Snape on me with ammunition," said Remus flatly.

"You're the idiot who was too cowardly to reign your idiot friends in! He has every right to hate you two after the hell you put him through! If it wasn't for James, he never would have lost my mother's friendship!" snapped Lal.

Seeing the shocked looks on their faces, she glared at them both.

"You thought I didn't know about that, did you? Snape told me what really happened to sever his friendship with my mother. James had pushed him too far and the peer pressure of being a half-blooded Slytherin who was friends with a muggleborn Gryffindor caused him to say something he never meant to my mother. Then James swept in and 'convinced' Lily to date him," she told them bluntly. "I am not my father... I do not tolerate bullies of any form and I will use you both as target practice if you piss me off to much."

Sirius shivered in fear.

"She means it Moony. She has more muggle guns than I've ever seen in my life and enough ammunition to set both our tails on fire...the booze she brought out earlier was just a small amount compared to the massive stockpile she has."

Remus paled at that.

"How did you get muggle guns? I thought they were illegal in England!"

Lal rolled her eyes.

"Gold will get you anything, especially if you manage to track down an American arms dealer who can get you contacts all too willing to sell 'decommissioned' weapons," she replied. "So long as I have the gold, they have the toys."

Sirius shivered...he had seen what she considered "toys" and what she could do with them. He had never found muggles more terrifying.

* * *

Lal felt herself unwind at summer camp. Here she was free to be her own person, so long as she held back on the 'Alpha bitch' side of herself.

Sirius had gone into shock shortly before she came back to France when, during one of Remus' bad nights, he saw Lal openly pile drive Moony before using a bit of killing intent to exert dominance on the wolf.

Remus hadn't bothered to take the potion, since he was having trouble finding a supplier of Snape's skills and it was hellishly expensive. However Lal had assured him that she could in fact transform like Sirius.

Neither of them expected the wolf-side of Remus to accepted Lal as his new Alpha so easily. Then again she had dominated an almost fully grown Cerberus before she was even twelve. She always knew Remus was more of a Beta...it explained why he was so quick to follow James.

As far as Moony was concerned, Lal was his Alpha and Sirius was another Beta. He was happy being part of a proper pack again, even if he had to put up with the one known as "Fluffy".

It was almost a shame it had to end...she rather enjoyed this place. Or to be more specific, she enjoyed being around Cole.

He was an idiot who reminded her painfully of Colonello, just without the fear of getting into trouble for dating a subordinate. Perhaps if they had met in different circumstance she could have fallen in love with him, but he would always be one of her students in her mind.

Which was why she was rather disappointed tomorrow was the last day of camp.

"_Missing school?"_ teased Cole in Italian. He was so happy someone else spoke his native language that he tended to use it more than French or English.

"_Maybe I'm going to miss a certain idiot who drives me crazy, but still has my back,"_ she shot back.

Cole's grin widened. He knew she cared about him, but she was so closed off when it came to romance that she had trouble admitting she liked someone that way.

"_I might have a way to fix that. It's a pity you won't give me your phone number," _he replied.

"_I don't have one. And the school I go to is incredibly closed off, so it's nearly impossible to reach a post office save for once a month, if I'm lucky."_

Cole reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small box.

"_If this is an engagement ring..."_ she started in warning.

Cole snorted.

"_Maybe later...we're both too young for that sort of thing to be taken seriously without a contract or something,"_ he replied.

He opened the box to reveal a necklace. It wasn't a fancy one, nor was it openly cheap. It was made of white gold and had a small heart with a piece of ruby in the center.

"_What is this?"_

"_Consider it a promise. I know this is your last year here, and I'm too old to come back as a counselor. However I want you to have this as a reminder that no matter how long it takes that I will find you again and this time, we'll go out on a _proper_ date."_

Lal had a not-so-secret addiction to the series "Once Upon A Time", and Cole's words sounded eerily reminscent of Prince Charming's words to Snow White. Specifically the line "I will always find you".

She didn't even realize she was crying until she felt Cole hug her.

"_I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."_

"_You didn't upset me. It's just no one's ever cared enough about me to say something like that...and actually _mean_ it."_

Lal had been alone for most of her life, and had kept Colonello away the first time because of the overwhelming guilt that he had taken the full brunt of a curse meant for her. She couldn't bear the thought of ruining his life like that.

For as long as she could remember, everyone in her life had put themselves and their own agendas _first_, with her as the afterthought if that. After having to deal with that for the first nineteen years of her life, she had come to accept that no one actually gave a damn about her personally unless it was to use her. It was simply safer to keep everyone away to avoid the heartache.

Cole continued to hug her, and once she had calmed down put the necklace around her neck for her. Her hands were shaking a bit too much to do it properly.

"_I promise that once I graduate school I will come looking for you, no matter how long it takes. My grandmother can just deal with it,"_ said Cole.

"_Your grandmother?"_

He looked a bit sheepish.

"_My family has certain rules about guys dating women outside the established bloodlines. Then again it's for safety reasons so I can get why, but it's such a pain in the ass."_

There was also the special training that all men in his family had to go through, because of what their bloodline contained. He didn't mind that part, but he did hate the fact that it was a necessity. The last thing he _ever_ wanted to do was to kill a member of the family for going rogue.

"_I should probably warn you that my godfather is picking me up tomorrow."_

"_Your godfather?"_

"_Long story short, he was illegally incarcerated in an insane asylum for twelve years and no one caught it until he broke out. By the time anyone realized what happened, someone dug up the old records and realized that he didn't belong there in the first place," _she admitted sheepishly.

"_Yikes,"_ said Cole with a wince.

"_He's made it clear he wanted to meet the 'actual reason' I kept coming back here, rather than stick close to him. So he'll be picking me up, or his friend will."_

As it turned out, the one to pick her up was Remus. Apparently Sirius had experienced a relapse and was unfit to be around normal people for a while.

Right now he was sleeping off the medication and the booze, and wouldn't be coherent until the day after.


	10. Chapter 10

Lal's boredom was obvious, though she really couldn't help it. She had plans to keep the imposter from putting her name in the goblet this time around and outside of keeping Cedric or any other champion from dying she had no idea what to do with her year.

Honestly, she found school dead boring without the yearly adventures hanging over her head.

Out of her friends, only Luna seemed to notice the new addition around Lal's neck. Though she kept quiet about it, because she wanted to spring the fact she was wearing it at the perfect time.

For the first few months, all anyone could talk about was the tournament. It had gotten to the point Lal wore her headphones to drown it out.

Considering _she_ knew exactly what was going to happen, she wanted nothing to do with it. And if anyone asked her if she wanted in, she would tell them the honest truth.

She was already famous for something she hated, she didn't _need_ the thousand galleons, and so long as Hogwarts won who cared who the actual champion was?

Fortunately Sirius had been cleared to take up the role as her "magical/legal" guardian, and her "loving" family had been quick to sign the papers when Remus visited.

Which meant she might actually have a reason to enjoy the Christmas holiday for once.

Sirius had already gotten her a new Firebolt, mostly because he had noticed what an adrenaline junkie she was on a broom. At least Lal had _mostly_ forgiven him for putting his revenge before his duties as her godfather.

Sighing, Lal patiently waited for the other schools to arrive. She just hoped she wouldn't be bored to tears by the end of the year.

At least Flitwick was keeping things interesting by having her study with the seventh year Ravenclaws. Being given a free pass to the Restricted Section...barring the genuinely dark books that should have been placed under far more restricted spells... was about the only thing keeping her from going insane from boredom.

And then...the big night arrived.

She just had no idea the massive shock she was about to get from it.

If there was one thing Colonello hated, it was the fact that he had been roped into acting as his cousin Fleur's chaperon for the duration of the Tri-Wizard tournament.

Sometimes it really, really sucked being a Veela.

At least he could mask his allure so that it didn't effect _everyone_ around him, unlike Fleur.

It was an unspoken secret among the Veela Sisterhood that there were in fact male Veela born. Male Veela were somewhat different from their 'sisters', and treated with far more respect among the Sisterhood.

A male Veela was either born with the allure of a full-blooded Veela...or none at all. And if they did inherit the allure, it was guarateed they would be magically powerful and more than a match for any wizard.

However the reason males were treasured by the Sisterhood was for one simple fact.

They were responsible for tracking down and eliminating any of the Veela that went 'rogue' and started causing trouble using their allure to ensnare men to do their bidding. It didn't happen often as the blood thinned and more humanity was added into it, but every so often a bad seed would show up and give the wizards all the reason they needed to treat Veela collectively as 'beasts' or worse, as little more than sex slaves.

Male Veela were completely immune to the female's allure. And as they were Veela, they were naturally born with inhuman beauty that would attract the attention of a female.

Another interesting fact was that male Veela were able to instinctively use the animagus transformation, and more often than not took the form of predatory birds. Colonello could take the form of a peregrine falcon, to his delight.

Colonello sighed. It sucked he had gotten roped into babysitting Fleur because this stupid contest was taking place in England, which was openly known for it's intolerance to those with 'creature inheritance' like Veela.

Because he wanted to date a woman outside the Sisterhood who happened to be a muggle, he had to earn a lot of brownie points with the Matriarch of the branch he belonged to.

Muggle women were especially susceptible to the allure, and they didn't want to expose magic without making very, very sure that the girl in question wouldn't turn on them. Or worse, attack him for being something other than human.

Which lead to him being shipped off to a country he wasn't particularly fond of, with a cousin who was something of a bitch when she was around strangers. Sure, he knew it was a self-defense mechanism but it didn't make Fleur any easier to _deal_ with.

"_Wishing you were with your fierce angel, cousin?"_ teased Fleur.

Colonello blushed slightly.

"_She really liked the necklace... I have the feeling no one's really taken the time to actually _care_ about her before,"_ said Colonello sheepishly.

"_Perhaps one day I can meet this 'angel' of yours,"_ said Fleur. She had never seen her favorite cousin so besotted before. It was rather adorable and the others enjoyed teasing him about it. _"Why a ruby though?"_

"_She was born July 31st, I thought she would like having her birthstone around her neck."_

"_The same day as the Girl-Who-Lived, which makes it easier to remember I suppose. Too bad you never thought to get a picture of her."_

Colonello snorted.

"_Like I would be _that_ stupid, cousin. The second any of you girls found out I had a picture of her, you would have sniffed her out and tried to find out whether she was worthy of me or not."_

Fleur conceded that point. Males were highly prized and guarded even more closely than the women were because of their duty. If he had taken a picture the older Veela would have tracked the girl down to find out her intentions for him. Never mind picked apart the poor thing's appearance with critical detail, as well as her background.

As the carraige began to descend, Colonello sighed tiredly.

He was _not_ looking forward to fending off the horny English morons from his cousin. Especially the pure bloods who would treat her as a lesser being because she was part Veela.

He stuck close to Madam Maxime, since his age restricted him from actually _participating_ in the contest. Not that he really cared about this whole nonsense.

It was weird though...he would swear he heard his angel's voice a bit farther down the table of the blue and bronze guys.

Which was impossible, because Lilac was a muggle. Why would she attend a non-magical summer camp all the way in France if she was a Hogwarts student?

Colonello was being driven crazy. He was _sure_ he heard Lilac's voice, but he could never pinpoint where it was coming from. Fleur was starting to get worried about him.

He was heading to the courtyard, with Fleur next to him when he heard it again. Except this time it was close enough that he could figure out where it was coming from.

"You know you never did say where you got that necklace," said a blond dreamily.

"Necklace? Since when do you even care for jewelry?" said another girl baffled.

The raven-haired one, who's back was to him, spoke up. His heart skipped a beat, because there was no way it was...

"A certain blond idiot, who shall remain nameless, gave it to me. He said it was a promise he'd come find me after he graduated no matter how long it took," said the raven-haired girl.

"Sounds like someone has a crush," sing-songed the blond.

"Shut up! Besides, why would I date any of these losers here when they're all such children who merely parrot back what their parents, or worse, _Dumbledore_ tells them? Hardly anyone in this school even bothers to properly think for themselves, and those that do are punished or beaten down until they fall under peer pressure!" said the raven-haired girl. "Not a single one of the boys here would ever qualify for what I consider boyfriend material."

"What about the other schools?" asked the brunette.

"Please, what are the odds of finding someone I could ever actually tolerate and not want to hex within a week?" scoffed the raven-haired girl.

"You never know...love might be closer than you think," said the blond impishly.

Colonello nearly had a heart attack when the blond looked right at him. Still he had heard enough to believe that the raven-haired girl was his Lilac. Especially after that comment about the necklace.

To the bewildered shock of his cousin, Colonello grinned. He walked right up to the raven haired girl and scooped her up in a princess carry.

The girl sputtered in shock, and her mind reacted before she realized properly who was holding her.

_"Cole, you ass! Put me down this instant or I swear to god I will hex you until your balls fall off!" _she shouted in Italian. Then her brain caught up to who was holding her, as complete shock filled her features. "Cole? What are you doing here?"

Colonello laughed.

"I did say I'd come and find you... I just never expected it to be so soon!"

"Put me down you idiot!" she snapped.

"Nope. A princess needs to be swept off her feet, otherwise who knows who will snatch her up!"

She pinched his cheek, hard, but he still didn't put her down.

"I swear to god if you think of dropping me in the lake again I will find a way to make your life hell."

"Oh come on, you know you had fun!"

"This is _Scotland_, and the Black Lake is filled with mountain run-off! Besides, I refuse to give the Durmstrang boys a show, which _will_ happen if I get water logged, you ass!"

"...Is anyone else confused?" asked the brunette.

Fleur, however, took _one_ look at the necklace around the girl's neck and her mouth dropped.

"No way..._this_ is the 'fierce angel' you kept going on and on about?" said Fleur.

Colonello laughed.

"Lilac, do you want me to get a teacher?"

"I'm fine Hermione. While Cole is an idiot, he wouldn't actually do anything inappropriate. He knows I would make it known in spades via a very long session of me kicking him in the balls if he tried," said Lilac annoyed.

"Colonello, put her down. You're making an embarassment of yourself," said Fleur, once she got her wits about her.

She didn't notice the widening of Lal's eyes when she said that name. There was no way this was actually...

Colonello reluctantly put her down, but he still had that stupid grin on his face.

To say he got an earful from Madame Maxime for his behavior was putting it _very_ mildly.

Throughout the lecture, Colonello was still grinning unrepentant.

Then again, who could blame him? Most of the worries he had about dating the girl he had fallen for had died with the newfound knowledge she was a witch, and thus already knew about magic. Now the only question was how she would take the fact he was considered a 'full' Veela, complete with allure.

He had the distinct impression she wouldn't care one bit... considering her 'uncle' that had come to pick her up was a werewolf anyway.

Colonello knew the signs, and that Remus guy had given him enough of them for him to peg the man as a werewolf. He couldn't tell if the guy was a magical one or not, but it made little difference when they transformed all the same in the end anyway. If she could handle having a werewolf for an uncle, odds were she wouldn't give a damn about having a Veela for a boyfriend.

_Lal POV_

Oh gods...Cole was actually _Colonello, _the idiot student she had loved, but was too cowardly to admit it.

Fate was either being a bigger bitch than usual, or _something_ was finally going her way for once.

She never saw the fact he was a full Veela coming though. Not in a million years.

Oh well, things like that had never concerned her in the slightest. So what if Colonello wasn't entirely human? She had gotten along with Fleur the last time, Gabrielle had been like a little sister to her, and she still cared for Remus, who was a werewolf.

On the plus side, she didn't have to worry about his feelings towards magic since he had it himself.

She lightly touched the necklace he gave her, and blushed.

He had said that he would find her...and now he had fulfilled that promise, although it was far sooner than either of them had ever anticipated. She didn't mind though...maybe this way she could avoid being bothered by the arrogant pure bloods who wanted to get into her pants once it became known she already had a boyfriend.

If there was one thing faster than spells in Hogwarts, it was the rumor mill. Two days after Colonello found out his beloved 'angel' was in Hogwarts and made his presence known, _everyone_ knew that Lilac Potter had an Italian boyfriend.

A very handsome, charming boyfriend who seemed to draw out the vulnerable side of a girl everyone knew to be a total hard ass.

All the Hogwarts students who had regular contact with Lilac had to do doubletakes, repeatedly, seeing her act like a _normal_ girl. And it wasn't just the students who were concerned.

Upon learning Colonello was a 'full' Veela, Flitwick took Madame Maxime aside and asked for her assurances the older boy wasn't using his allure on his favorite student.

They had no idea the chaos that would spawn when Colonello actually let some of his allure slip, just to prove a point.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello everyone! To those of you who doubted her, I would like to inform you that AriaLuchiaPaxen (on Discord) is indeed a friend of mine. And those those who sent ideas and suggestions for new stories, I regret to inform you that my PM box on fanfiction is jammed packed. But I'm sure Aria could pass along your ideas if you're unable to contact me directly.**

* * *

Colonello was getting sick and tired of the looks he kept getting from the teachers. Was it really _that_ bad that Lilac trusted him enough to let her more vulnerable side show? Exactly how much of a 'demon' was she that they started freaking out by her acting any other girl he knew?

Even Fleur was baffled by their behavior. She had expected to have trouble with the Englishmen because of her allure, only for the one with complete control to be targeted because he had a girlfriend!

Finally Colonello had enough of the teacher's suspicious looks, and did something his grandmother would have slapped him for.

He let his allure go. Not all of it, but enough to prove a point when there were at least five other girls other than Lilac around. Two of the Hogwarts teachers, specifically Flitwick and Pomphrey who were planning to take her aside to test for potions and the like, witnessed the entire event.

The effect was immediate, and rather humiliating if the teachers hadn't been so quick to stun the other girls.

Lilac looked absolutely _furious_ with him.

Without even a second's hesitation, she stormed up to Colonello and decked him so hard that he fell flat on his ass and his allure cut off immediately. He looked at her in absolute shock.

"You complete bastard! Do you _really_ think you need your damn allure to earn my affections?!" she snapped.

Lilac stormed off, completely furious with him. Meanwhile Flitwick and Pomphrey were busy handling the aftermath.

"May I ask what that was about?" demanded Flitwick. He was _very_ unhappy seeing his student behave like sex-crazed idiots determined to assualt a foreign student.

"I was proving a damn point! I was sick and tired of the suspicious looks and the fact all the Hogwarts teachers seemed to think I had Lilac under a spell or potion because of my bloodline!" said Colonello irate, rubbing the spot Lilac had punched him. "Is it really _that_ hard to believe she trusted me enough to let her defenses down and let her actual feeling show, rather than the hard-ass version you've been dealing with?"

It's like the teachers here had never encountered a tsundere before!

Colonello was irritated beyond belief, and couldn't give a single damn about the earful Madame Maxime gave him when she was told of the incident. At least the teachers quit giving him suspicious looks about whether he was using his allure on the girls, if letting even a fraction of it loose caused them to try and rip his clothes off.

Fleur had to explain to Flitwick and the school nurse the difference between male and female veela, and how Colonello almost never used his allure because he hated the way girls acted when he did. He only ever loosened his control over it around his own family, who were immune to it to begin with.

That did not stop her from cornering him once Madame Maxime finally let him off detention.

"Mind explaining why you really did that?" demanded Fleur. "I'm the one who has to explain this to the Matriarch later."

"I'm sick of the teachers thinking I had Lilac under my spell because of our bloodline," said Colonello crossly. "Honestly, it's like they've never encountered a tsundere before."

Fleur blinked.

"What."

"Lilac is a total tsundere, I'm sure of it. She comes off as the sort of hard ass you'd come across in the military, but in reality she's just lonely and wants someone who would be willing to put her first and love her for who she is, not what they expect her to be. Her act is like the bitch face you put on, ramped up to a hundred at least," said Colonello. "And now thanks to them, my girlfriend is pissed at me."

"How did she react to the allure?" asked Fleur with sympathy. That couldn't have been easy for her cousin, seeing her react to it.

"She got pissed and decked me," said Colonello. "The hit shocked me enough that I put my allure back under control."

Dead silence.

"Could you repeat that?" said Fleur in shock.

"Lilac realized what I was doing, and decked me hard enough that I put my allure back under control. She was pretty pissed and demanded to know why I thought I needed it to earn her affection," repeated Colonello. And then what he just said hit him like a brick.

Fleur was in absolute shock. The odds of finding someone immune to the allure was rare, but not unheard of...if you were a normal veela that is.

But for a _male_ to find someone immune to them that wasn't family... that was very big. Their allure was so strong that they were _always_ born with complete control over it, otherwise they would be forced into isolation to avoid being attacked.

For Lilac Potter to punch him, rather than try to rip his clothes off despite being in close proximity to it... she was a very rare find indeed.

Did not change the fact she was royally pissed at him right now though.

* * *

_Lal POV_

Lal wanted to rage. Instead she went straight to the Room of Requirement...and cried.

Why? Why did Colonello feel like he needed his allure to earn her love? Did he really feel that insecure about their relationship that he used something like _that_ around other girls?

Lal clutched the necklace he had given her. She would give him a chance to explain himself, but right now she just wanted to scream.

He deserved better that to have her jealousy rear it's ugly head and possibly ruin what they might have.

Then again, maybe it was better this way. If she broke it off with him, then he wouldn't follow her to that damn mountain and end up cursed. He could have a normal life, grow old with someone else and have a family. He could be happy, and she could finally resign herself to the fate of being alone for the rest of her life.

After all, a freak like her deserved it.

Warm arms wrapped themselves around her, and she registered the comforting presence of Luna.

"Shhh...it's okay big sister. I have you. Just let it out," said Luna soothingly.

Lal just cried until she had no more tears left to shed. She wrapped her arms around Luna and passed out from emotional exhaustion.

* * *

Luna was on a mission. Lilac was safe from everyone else at the moment, but she wanted to have a _word_ with the instigators of this incident.

"Ms. Lovegood, do you need something?" asked Professor Flitwick.

"Professor, I was wondering why you went out of your way to upset big sister so much."

Flitwick blinked.

"It was not our intention to upset Ms. Potter, but we were highly concerned about her behavior."

"Did it never occur to you to ask where she might have met Colonello in the first place? After all, when he first ran into her at the school the first thing she called him was 'Cole'. She was highly surprised he was even here, much less that he had magic as well," said Luna.

_That_ got Flitwick's attention.

"Are you saying they met in a purely _muggle_ environment?" he said baffled.

Luna merely smiled at him, but the way she did it made Flitwick feel like a fool.

None of the teachers knew exactly _how_ Lilac Potter had met this "Colonello", or why she permitted him liberties on her person that would have gotten other boys slapped. She did not tolerate people in her personal space, save for a select few. And even then, she didn't like being touched.

Colonello on the other hand, went right past those barriers from the very beginning and even had the daring to kiss her in full view of others, and she would merely blush about it. That had been the main issue and the root of why they suspected the older boy was using his allure, considering his heritage.

Flitwick resolved to have a word with the boy first, since according to Ms. Lovegood, Lilac was quite upset at the fact Colonello had used his allure around her. With how the other females in the room reacted to his allure, he could understand why.

_A few hours later..._

"Where did I meet Lilac?" said Colonello baffled.

He wondered what this was about, and why the obvious half-goblin wanted to know where he had met his fierce angel.

Colonello scratched his head in confusion.

"I met her during summer camp. I wanted to get away from my crazy female relatives who seemed to make it their mission to match me up with another veela from a different branch of the Sisterhood since the odds of finding someone outside it were pretty slim, never mind the restrictions placed on the guys. She never told me her full name, just told me to call her Lilac. I honestly had no idea she was a witch until I ran into her here," said Colonello.

"I can confirm that. Everyone thought the girl he had fallen into a summer romance with was a muggle," said Fleur. "He never bothered to get any information that could lead us to her because the Sisterhood would have tracked her down without a second thought to find her out her intentions for him."

Flitwick had the feeling they had blown things far out of proportion. Clearly Lilac had fallen for him during the summer months, when she wasn't feeling pressured by the weight of expectations on her for being the 'girl-who-lived'. And since they had met during a muggle camp, it was obvious she had no idea he was a veela and was never subjected to his allure before now.

It would seem they owed the young man a great apology.

* * *

The first thing Colonello did when he finally tracked Lilac down was to kiss her and apologize profusely.

"I am so sorry babe... I was just sick of everyone assuming I was using my allure on you because no one knows what a tsundere is," said Colonello. "Apparently it never occurred to the teachers we ran into each other in a purely muggle setting."

Lal froze.

"What did you just call me?" said Lal in a far too calm voice.

"A tsundere. It was pretty obvious you were one of those harsh outside, total softie inside types. I've been around them often enough with my cousins, especially during that time of the month," said Colonello grimacing.

Words could not describe how much he _loathed_ the 'time of the month'. The raging bitchfest he had to deal with just plain _sucked_.

Lal vibrated with fury.

"How dare you call me a tsundere!" she growled.

Colonello just grinned. Tsundere _hated_ being called on their behavior, which made poking at them all the more fun.

He let her beat him up a little, since he knew she needed to vent some of her rage at his behavior earlier.

"Wait...what do you mean it never occurred to them we met in a muggle setting?"

"Apparently they were under the impression we ran into each other in a magical alley or something, not at a muggle summer camp where I would naturally have to keep my allure in check," said Colonello. "That tiny teacher of yours was surprised we had been meeting up during the summers, unaware that the other party had magic in the first place."

Lal twitched.

"You mean to tell me this entire fiasco could have been avoided...if they had known we had met during summer camp of all things?" she said twitching.

"Yep."

"Gods, I hate wizarding logic," said Lal tired.

"So... are we okay now?"

"Oh, I'm still pissed you used your allure without warning me first or telling me what you were planning, but I'm not going to hex you over it like I was originally planning."

Colonello felt relief.

"Does this mean I can ask you out to Hogsmeade this weekend?" he asked hopefully.

"It means you _might_ get a kiss after, so long as you don't piss me off further," she said flatly.

It was clear she was still mad about it, but at least she wasn't dumping him outright. He'd take what he could get.

* * *

Lal was bored, but at least she had made up with Colonello, which was why she was discreetly snuggled up against him.

He was rather understanding about the fact that she wanted nothing to do with celebrating a holiday that happened on the exact date her parents were murdered. Which meant that she was once again in the room of requirement, which was currently looking like a copy of the Italian countryside.

They were on top of a picnic blanket, leaning against a tree with a rather large feast having been mostly consumed between the two of them. He was even more surprised when she brought out the bottle of real Italian wine.

Since they were alone, Colonello let his allure out... but he made a point to warn her first just in case she took it badly.

At least she didn't deck him for it like last time.

It was almost a shame when they had to end their quiet date. He found it rather enjoyable, just being able to relax and not have to hide anything from her.

And then their mellow had to come crashing down when someone rather rudely demanded to know where Lal was the night before, because _her_ name had come out of the damn cup.

"What," said Lal, her very tone icy and full of rage.

"Where were you last night, Ms. Potter, when the selection of the champions was taking place?" demanded McGonagall.

"I was with my boyfriend, avoiding the entire headache because I hate Halloween and anything to do with the date in question. Like I do _every_ year," said Lal, not backing down. "In case you haven't noticed, I've been more interested in solidifying my relationship with Colonello and have made it abudantly clear I wanted nothing to do with this nonsense ever since it was announced."

McGonagall's eyes narrowed.

"Are you certain you didn't ask one of the older students to drop your name in for you?"

"One, I'm already famous for something I hate being reminded of... I have absolutely no need for a temporary fame for winning a competition. Two, I don't actually _need_ the thousand galleon prize. And three, I have been working my ass off to pass my O.W.L.'s a year early...why would I waste all that effort just for a competition I could care less about?" demanded Lal flatly.

McGonagall broke the glaring contest between them first. However it was clear she was not happy about this at all.

Thankfully the Ravenclaws were all logic-driven enough to believe Lal when she said she never entered, nor did she care to join the competition in the first place.

The Hufflepuffs were still pissed she stole their glory.


	12. Chapter 12

Sirius was at the school the first chance he had, which was during the Hogsmeade weekend. Not only did he want to assure himself that his pup was alright, but he really, _really_ wanted to meet Lilac's mysterious French boyfriend.

Lilac looked ready to hex him.

"Sirius, you are an idiot. Colonello isn't my French boyfriend," said Lal rolling her eyes.

"Then why does he have his arm around your waist, and why did you dress up so nicely for him? Besides, I'm betting he's the bloke you wanted to see at that camp of yours."

"Yup," confirmed Colonello cheerfully. "Colonello 'Cole' Usignolo at your service. But everyone just calls me Colonello for short."

"See! He's your boyfriend, so why are you trying to deny it?" asked Sirius triumphant.

"I wasn't denying that he's my boyfriend. Just that he isn't French," said Lal. Then she looked at Colonello oddly. "Your name is 'Colonel Nightingale'?"

Colonello made a face.

"Why do you think I only go by Cole around others?" he replied.

"Well if you're not French then what are you?"

"An Italian veela," chirped Colonello.

"...There's male veela?" said Sirius in disbelief. He always thought it was a girl's only club.

"Yeah, there's male veela. We have complete control over our allure, a natural ability to turn into full birds instead of partials, and we tend to marry 'in-house' so to speak because our allure is way more powerful than any of the girls. The only ones that are guaranteed to have an immunity to it are the girls, but the Matriarchs are very careful that we never marry into the same branch in order to avoid accidentally mingling cousins," explained Colonello.

At least _Sirius_ was being reasonable about the whole 'male veela' thing, compared to the teachers.

"And before you ask about his allure, the teachers had to stun every female in the room besides me because they were acting like animals in heat and would have tried to rip his clothes off," said Lal.

"I thought you said guys have complete control?"

"Lilac is such a hard ass normally that when she started acting like any other girl with actual hormones, they started getting suspicious about what was actually going on," said Colonello, openly annoyed by that. "I let just a tiny bit of it slip to prove a point."

Sirius looked at his goddaughter.

"Are you happy with him?"

"Yes. He might be an idiot sometimes, but I do like him a lot," said Lal honestly.

Sirius looked at Colonello.

"Do you honestly love my goddaughter?"

"I was fully prepared to petition the Matriarch to seal my magic, just so I had a chance to actually _be_ with her," admitted Colonello.

That got Lal's full attention.

"What?!"

"It's the only way to permanently contain a male veela's allure. If you aren't immune to it, then the only way to insure I never actually slip up is to seal my magic. I'd still be immune to other veela, but I wouldn't be able to influence anyone with my own. To be honest, I probably would have done that anyway just to get away. I love my family, but being surrounded by that many girls is a pain in the _ass_. Especially when you're expected to marry in-house because of how rare it is for men to born into the Sisterhood," said Colonello.

_'Well _that_ explains a lot...like why I never knew Colonello had magic or came from a veela bloodline,'_ thought Lal.

From the sound of things, Colonello was rather hen-pecked by the Sisterhood because he was a guy who happened to be immune to the allure and was considered 'safe' because he was family. His aunts, cousins and sisters likely kept a close eye on him, driving him batty.

No wonder he was so quick to memorize her monthly schedule and knew _exactly_ what to say to help appease the her inner demon that always came out during that time of the month.

Sirius looked between the two of them and saw a much stronger love than Lily and James had before their deaths.

"You have my approval, but if you hurt her then I call first dibs after she's done turning you into target practice with that armory of hers...and set Fluffy on you."

Colonello blinked.

"Armory? What armory?" he said confused. He looked at his girlfriend.

"He hasn't seen it yet?"

"I'm still reeling from the fact he's a wizard. The idiot had the audacity to sweep me off my feet in a princess carry the second he realized I was a witch that attended Hogwarts," said Lal in open embarrassment.

Sirius let out a bark of laughter hearing that. It seemed his pup was in _very_ good hands if her boyfriend felt secure of her feelings for him to pull a stunt that brazen. The fact she hadn't shot him for it with her gun that he knew all too well she kept strapped to her leg and hidden under her skirt at all times said that she hadn't been too irate about the move either.

* * *

_A few hours later..._

"Why is it that the guy who has to attend mandatory therapy sessions was perfectly okay with the idea of us dating and actually bothers to ask whether or not I'm influencing you, but the teachers jump to conclusions first and ask after all hell breaks loose?" asked Colonello later.

"Probably because he knows perfectly well that if you _were_ influencing me I would shoot you repeatedly with the things I have in my case, and because he knew there had to be a reason why I wanted to go back to that camp despite the fact it severely limited our time together since he's started to stabilize. It's mostly the armory thing though."

"What's this about an armory anyway?" asked Colonello.

It wasn't like his fierce angel had an large amount of weapons lying around, right?

The smile on her face was somewhat terrifying, and he was happy it wasn't aimed with any ire towards him.

Colonello walked out of Lal's special case slightly terrified...and highly aroused.

Seriously, Lilac had to be his soul mate. How many other witches was he going to find that walked around with _that_ much ordinance and a knowledge of how to use anti-tank rifles like it was nothing? Hell, she and actual _tank_ in that case and ammunition to go with it, and even offered to let him drive it for a bit in the Room of Requirement to blow shit up!

He was head over heels in love with this girl and there was no turning back.

He knew that much when she said with a smug expression on her face "Bitches love cannons"...while holding a pair of fully automatic rifles in her both hands and able to aim them accurately enough to do a lot of damage.

(He was also not admitting to Fleur or any of the women in his family the wicked, wicked things Lilac had said to him when he got a chance to try out the tank she had in her armory. Though the look Fleur gave him when she noticed the fact he had to use a cleaning charm on his pants said she knew too much for his liking.)

* * *

Lal was not in a happy mood, but at least she knew exactly what was going to happen so she didn't stress overly much about the details.

Flitwick had been pleasantly surprised when she asked to take her Ordinary Wizarding Levels _anyway_, despite being exempt from them as a champion.

The first thing she did upon leaving the tent...was to change out of the ridiculous 'outfit' they made the champions were.

Her shirt and pants became much more form fitting and far less tacky to look at. Her shoes were left alone as she had worn her favorite combat boots, as was her rather sloppy pony tail.

She heard a wolf-whistle and flipped Colonello off.

She took one look at the Horntail and smirked.

"AVIS!"

She put a lot more power into a summon bird summoning charm. Then again, it wasn't likely the wizards knew exactly what she was summoning in the first place.

A massive creature, which was decidedly _not_ bird-like in form or feature, appeared from her wand.

It was bigger than the actual dragon, and had leathery skin. The small arms were off-set by the thick legs clearly meant for running hard at long distances to catch prey. Jaws that could only belong to a carnivore dripped saliva, and had teeth that made the wizards _very_ nervous. A long, thick tail moved easily, to keep balance. Small eyes tracked every movement made, but there was no doubting this was an apex predator.

It looked like a big dragon without wings, to be honest.

The second it roared, over half the audience pissed themselves in fear.

Colonello, on the other hand, starting howling with laughter so hard that he was having trouble breathing. Trust his fierce angel to use a simple bird conjuring spell to create the Tyrant Lizard!

"Get 'em Rexy!" shouted Lal, though it was clear she was close to cackling herself.

The T-Rex roared, and the dragon roared back.

While the fire-breathing lizard was distracted by the dinosaur, Lal slid under the ancient predator to grab the egg.

However the second she did, her face twitched.

"WHAT IDIOT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR CARING FOR THESE NESTS? THESE EGGS ARE ALMOST STONE COLD!"she shouted infuriated.

No wonder the horntail was pissed! She probably sensed the eggs were dead, or about to be!

Lal didn't even think twice...she blasted the chains holding the dragon in place and the dispelled the T-Rex once she was out of the dragon's range.

The horntail focused on her eggs, rather than the witch. It started desperately breathing fire onto the nest in hopes of saving the hatchlings inside.

Seeing the dragon handlers come on to the scene, likely to pull the dragon back, Lal saw red and dropped the egg.

She stormed up to them, looking very much like a dragon herself and went straight up to one Charlie Weasley.

"Which one of your idiot co-workers was in charge of the eggs?" she demanded.

Charlie blinked. Suddenly the twin's comments that Lilac Potter was like a miniature female version of Bill made a lot more sense.

"That would be Igov. What's wrong?"

"That nest was almost stone cold when I took the fake from it. I may not know dragons as well as you, but I _do_ know they require a large source of heat to stay viable until hatching! Whoever chained the dragon up put it too far to properly keep those eggs warm, and if that nest was cold then you had better check the ones that didn't get smashed as well! I'd love to see how you explain to your supervisors why you allowed four perfectly good nests be destroyed for a mere _tournament_ when props that were fire resistant could have been used instead!"

Charlie winced.

"Shit...she's right, this nest is almost completely dead! At least four of them are goners, and the last three will need careful attention to avoid being killed off in the egg!" shouted another handler.

Her job done, she picked up the fake and went to the medical tent.

Only to find the other champions staring at her.

"What?"

"What in the hell did you summon that roared like that?" asked Cedric.

"A Tyrannosaurus Rex," said Lal without hesitation.

Fleur sputtered.

"Well that explains why I heard an idiot laughing his ass off," said Fleur.

"What the hell is a Tyrannosaurus Rex?" asked Cedric.

Lal's smirk did not inspire warm and fuzzy feelings.

"Would you like to see for yourself?"

The boys wisely shut their traps. Fleur merely smirked.

When Colonello came in to give his girlfriend a congratulatory kiss, he was still snickering.

"Oh god, their faces when you made that dinosaur instead of a flock of birds! Half the guys around me literally shit their pants!" cackled Colonello with appreciation.

Lal smirked with feminine superiority.

"Well they do say that the T-Rex is loosely related to chickens...besides, I made sure to practice that trick last year."

It was a great way to exercise her core, and forced her magic to become much more flexible when it came to interpretting what she wanted.

"If you two _must_ make out, then for the love of magic do it outside. I do not want to see my cousin with his girlfriend," said Fleur rolling her eyes.

"Can do, cuz," said Colonello with a grin.

"What...put me down you idiot!" shouted Lal flustered. She beat upon Colonello's back as he had scooped her up like a sack of potatoes.

"Nope," he said cheerfully, before absconding with his girlfriend for a bit.

"...Never thought I'd see the day the Demon of Ravenclaw would be bested by a guy...and not try to hex him for it," said Cedric after a moment, staring after them.

"Why do you call her that?" asked Viktor.

"When you piss her off, she becomes a demon in the form of a tiny underclassman. I know for a fact the teachers are making her one of the Prefects next year," deadpanned Cedric. "She's the only person in the castle that's ever gotten the Weasley twins to behave and not try to go behind her back after...not even McGonagall had managed that and she's tried."

"Sounds like a fearsome woman," said Viktor.

"Most of the students wisely fear pissing her off...but at the same time the younger students all love her. She's like a big sister figure to them and I know she's taken one of the younger eagles in as her little sister to the point of sharing her dorm with her."

Fleur snickered.

"In other words, she has the 'mom' voice down pat."


	13. Chapter 13

Lal was tired, but happy. She had aced every single exam and she knew she had gotten an "exceeds expectations" on all her tests at the very least.

Now came the real trial...finding a dress for the ball.

She hadn't bothered to buy any, because she had fully intended to skip out of it once she dealt with Crouch's attempts to put her in the tournament.

Sadly Colonello's sudden appearance distracted her at the worst time to avoid it.

The worst part was that she had absolutely no idea what to wear. She had always skirted on the issue with her dress uniform when in COMSUBIN, and by the time she had to dress for the Vongola balls she never had to bother with it much because of her status as a member of the Arcobaleno. A failed one, but still a member.

Afterwards she had simply been too busy and too damn tired of cleaning up after Iemitsu's idiocy to deal with that sort of thing.

Which was why she was seeking out the one female likely to give her a straight answer.

_"Yes? What do you want? Colonello isn't here."_

"_I know. I'm looking for you. You are aware of the ball that's to take place on Christmas, correct?"_

"_I was rather amused your little sister asked if she could be my date. What of it?"_ asked Fleur.

"_...I need your help finding a proper dress for it," _said Lal embarassed. _"I had no intention of sticking around for the ball after it was announced, at least until Colonello suddenly showed up. So I never bothered to get anything. And there's no way in hell I'm trusting a wizard's idea of fashion when the mundanes have much better tastes."_

Fleur looked at the girl before her with some sympathy and a little interest. It was pretty clear at first glance Lilac was firmly a 'tomboy', and a tsundere to boot. For her to bite back her pride long enough to ask for help was pretty big.

She clearly didn't want to embarrass herself in front of her date, and to be honest if she could nudge the girl towards a much more appropriate wardrobe she would consider it a victory in itself. The outfit Lilac had transfigured for herself said volumes about her usual preferences for casual wear.

"_How do you intend to get mundane dresses to try on? There isn't a proper store within a hundred miles of this...school."_

"_Did you know there's an unspoken loophole in regards to Hogsmeade weekends?" _said Lal impishly. _"There's nothing that actually _forbids_ students from taking the Knight Bus to London for several hours, or apparating if they're old enough. It's just considered an agreed upon restriction that students stick to the village."_

Fleur looked at the girl with renewed appreciation. It was clear Lilac thrived in thinking outside the box most wizards put their minds into when it came to common sense.

"_Do you have normal currency?"_ asked Fleur.

"_I fully intend to make that idiot dogfather of mine pay for _everything_. Except perhaps the jewelry...odds are I'd find better pieces in my family vaults compared to the tacky stuff available now," _said Lal flatly.

Fleur nodded with approval. She had heard about the case of Sirius Black, and making the man pay for twelve years of neglecting his duties as Godfather was perfectly reasonable.

"_So can you help me?" _asked Lal nervously.

"_I will help you...if only to rub it in the face of my cousin and the foolish Englishmen who seemed to think _robes_ are the epitome of fashion. I mean honestly, your school skirt shouldn't have to go past your knees," _said Fleur.

"_I don't _like_ wearing skirts period, and the longer ones at least insure none of these idiot cavemen have a chance to flip it up before I hex them to hell and back for their attempt. Besides, I never had a reason to properly dress up as a girl before since I wasn't attracted to any of the children here."_

"_...Fair enough. I suppose a lack of any appealing men that suit your criteria would explain some of your clothing choices. I hope our excursion will at least convince you to dress like an actual girl more after this."_

"_I'll have to get some new clothes, but I don't see that being a problem. Most of my underthings are due for a replacement anyway."_

Especially her bras. Last time she barely made it to a 'C' cup, and now she was quickly edging closer to a low-D. Apparently the lack of proper food and exercise last time around had stunted more than just her height and weight. It had taken years before she could correct it.

_Three days later..._

Fleur was not impressed with the Knight Bus, but Sirius met them as promised with his new bank card. He was giving his goddaughter free reign so long as she remembered to spend lunch with him once they were done shopping.

Fleur was a demon when it came to powershopping, but at least they found a dress that Lal felt comfortable wearing.

While she was fine with _some_ skin showing, she didn't want to look like she was trying too hard. Fleur rather appreciated that, because some of the dresses looked more like a woman was attempting to whore themselves out in order to catch a rich man who would likely dump them once age had taken their looks away.

The most exhausting thing wasn't the dress... that had taken all of forty-five minutes to settle on one that Lal liked and Fleur approved of.

No, the worst part was the rest of it. By the time they met up with Sirius again, Lal was just ready to crash. On the plus side, she could now throw out most of her old wardrobe...or give it to Luna for her to alter however she liked.

Lal was doing something that made her rather nervous. Namely getting dressed for the ball. The dress itself was simple enough to put on. It was the make-up and everything else she had no clue what to do with.

Sure, she could hide a bruise or injury like an expert...but using it to make herself look more appealing? That was completely out of her comfort zone.

Which was why she made a point to sit still and let Fleur expertly apply it. Another girl was able to do her hair...while despairing at the state of it.

She kept it clean and out of her face, what more did they want from someone who didn't really bother with looking pretty? The potion they put on her hair made it feel weird, but she had to admit she liked the effect. She had no idea the difference it would make by using a different shampoo and conditioner.

Finally she slipped into the high heels she had bought. They were enough to elevate her somewhere closer to Colonello's face, but weren't so high that she would trip on them. She had spent the past week and a half walking in them in between classes and putting the spares she had through the ringer with the dance moves she did know.

That had been one of the few things Fleur had been pleased with. The fact Lal at least knew how to balance in the shoes _and_ already knew the proper dance moves.

Lal didn't spend all her time practicing martial arts, and sometimes dancing was more fun than just training. And she had a lot of time to practice.

* * *

Thanks to the careful application of a disillusionment charm, Colonello never saw her leave the room where the French girls were preparing themselves.

Colonello was dressed up in a parody of a formal military dress. He had openly admitted he had been planning to ask the Matriarch to seal his magic, if only to get far, far away from the nightmare of being trapped inside the Sisterhood forever.

He had hoped to reinvent himself in the military, which branch didn't matter.

So it made sense he would pick a formal outfit for officers as his 'dress robes'...it still looked far more flattering than anything the other boys were wearing.

Colonello was patiently waiting for her to arrive. So she got to enjoy the shocked look on his face which quickly sparked a distinct expression of lust and love in his eyes the _second_ he registered who the hottie was that was calmly flowing down the stairs.

Luna was looking as eccelectic as ever, though she made it work to Fleur's open amusement. At least Fleur wouldn't have to deal with some boy drooling over her rather than paying attention to his dancing.

Colonello was quick to take her arm, and Lal felt very pleased that he kept looking her over as if he couldn't believe his girlfriend could turn out _that_ hot when she put her mind to it.

God knows the rest of the school was busy staring after her the second they realized who she was. She could already see most of the boys were kicking themselves for not trying to earn her attention first, now that they show how well she cleaned up.

Lal was having a blast. It was a good thing she was used to heels, even if her feet were killing her at the end of it.

Colonello, through long experience, seemed to know when she was too tired to continue. Which was why he swept her off her feet (literally) into a princess carry the _second_ they were outside the door.

"Thank you," she said tiredly.

"Not a problem, princess," he said grinning. "I'm glad you had fun."

"That being said, next time we do this I want to be wearing flats or something more used to dancing. High heels are not meant for that many spins, even if you _did_ keep me from falling flat on my ass."

Colonello grinned.

"Perks of having way too many female relatives. If I didn't know how to dance or at least sweep my partner off their feet, I never would have heard the end of it."

Before Lal said anything, she spotted a familiar bug and narrowed her eyes.

She discreetly conjured a jar and lid...and scooped the unusual beetle inside before it had a chance to fly off.

Colonello looked at the bug oddly.

"What's with the beetle?" he asked confused.

"Take a better look at the eyes and ask me that," said Lal.

Colonello did...and swore.

"You have got to be shitting me. That hag Skeeter is a _beetle_ animagus?!" he said irate. He'd recognize those awful glasses anywhere.

Shortly after being named champion, Lal had gone in for the 'weighing of the wands'. Skeeter had tried to get an exclusive interview but Lal had decked her so hard she blacked out...to the open approval of everyone else.

No one liked Skeeter, and the second she tried to go after Lal for dating a veela, the woman had found herself on the worst possible end of the Sisterhood's very expensive lawyers.

Colonello had put mail wards around himself for a full month and had everything redirected to a secure room where the letters could be checked...and in far too many cases, _disarmed_, before he even went near them. He sent anything that was trapped to the lawyers to go after the sender.

He wasn't a complete idiot, after all.

Lal had done the same, and went one step better...she told her owl to maul any other bird that attempted to deliver a howler. An order Joan had taken with far too much enjoyment.

Feathers had rained in the great hall for a solid week after that article, because Joan took it to mean she should maul _any_ owl delivering a howler. Apparently owls hated them as much as the recipients did.

(Lal was highly amused that the twins promptly told their owl Loki to do the same to any howlers directed to them from their mother.)

With Skeeter captured, Hagrid was allowed to 'woo' Madame Maxime in peace.

Honestly, Lal thought he could do much better...though she meant no offense to Hagrid or Madame Maxime. The simple fact was that they were a terrible fit. Hagrid was a man who enjoyed the outdoors and simple things, whereas Madame Maxime was firmly someone who enjoyed high society. The only common element between them was that they were both half-giants.

"I think I've had enough dancing for tonight," said Lal.

Colonello said nothing...he was aware her feet were likely hurting. Which was why, instead of sweeping her up like he had earlier, he offered her his arm instead.

"Normally I'd carry you to the tower...but that's way too many flights of stairs and I don't want to completely ruin the dress," admitted Colonello. "Besides, carrying you piggy back would only make you look ridiculous."

Lal's lips quirked upward at that.

"Or we can find a room to make out in, and I can ask one of my elves to simply teleport me to the outside of the common room door," she said amused.

Dobby was working in the kitchens, since Lal didn't really have many tasks for him. The moment she found Winky there, she made the female elf an offer to redeem her honor as a elf that belonged to the house of Black.

Barty Crouch jr. was related to the Blacks through his mother. Therefor Winky technically served the Blacks since she had been his personal elf.

The female elf had jumped at the chance to redeem herself, and was now just as loyal as Dobby was.

Colonello perked up at the suggestion. He was sure a number of couples were planning to take advantage of the night to have some fun with their partners.

"By the way, any idea who the hell spiked the punch? It was a lot stronger than it should have been for a party filled with minors and I swear there were different alcohols in it."

Lal smirked.

"Why Colonello, I'm surprised at you."

He looked at her.

"How exactly did you miss the 'special' section of my armory?"

Colonello blinked.

"Special section?"

Lal couldn't help her laughter.

"You mean you completely missed the selection of alcohol I had next to the grenades and land mines?" she laughed.

He stared at her, incredulous.

"Say _what_ now?"

"I paid an ex-Royal Marine to buy me as much cheap booze as he could carry, along with whatever he wanted from the liquor store. Though the last time I told him to go for the high end stuff, since apparently the owner was getting _highly_ suspicious why the man was buying so much once a year. Pretty sure I saw a cop pretending to be homeless to bust whoever was paying him to buy so much."

She might not be military...yet...but anyone who's served would recognize the look in her eye and the way she held herself as someone who spent time around military types. It was ingrained in them from hard training and years of following orders.

The second Colonello saw the _massive_ amount of booze in the armory, he looked at his girlfriend incredulous.

"You keep this in your armory? Why?"

"Two words. Molotav. Cocktails."

Confusion turned to understanding.

"Ah."

"That and if I get really, really bored I can sell it around the school in small vials after mixing up a few of the brands and claim it's 'Gryffindor Courage'," said Lal with a straight face. "Not like anyone would have the brains to figure out what it actually is since most of the alcohol around here that the kids can access is firewhiskey and butterbeer."

Colonello cracked up at that.


	14. Chapter 14

"My Princess, would you be so kind as to honor me with your presence to Hogsmeade this weekend?" asked Colonello.

Lal used to _hate_ Valentine's day. Now, however, she was willing to allow her general misgivings towards the romantic holiday go for a few hours.

Besides, she finally had an excuse to go on a date wearing her new wardrobe. So far she had gotten nothing but positive reviews from the other girls when they found out what Fleur had done with it.

At least her back wasn't giving her as much grief, now that she had the proper support.

She didn't bother with make-up...she still wasn't the best at it unless it was to conceal injuries. She did, however, put her new earrings in and the necklace Colonello had given her for Christmas.

She didn't bother to hide her grin at the bottlecap earrings she now wore...to help ward off wrackspurts.

Lal had a rather wide smile on her face as Colonello treated her like she was actual royalty...though considering Hogwarts was filled with children from noble lines, perhaps it wasn't too far a stretch.

She was also heartily glad that she knew of the unspoken loophole in the Hogsmeade weekends. Considering the level of 'love-love' nonsense going around the village, she didn't want anything to do with it. Sure, she would stop by the Three Broomsticks for some butterbeer or raid Honeydukes for her chocolate craving, but outside that she didn't really bother wandering the village. There were going to be too many people around for her Cloud instincts to like. Besides, it was far too...girly...for her tastes.

Which ironically enough was another reason why Colonello had fallen head over heels with her. He was so used to the "feminine" women in his life who took forever with their make-up, their clothes and god knows what else that having a girlfriend who was decisive and didn't waste time was a magic-sent gift. Sure, she was still learning how to behave like an actual _girl_ sometimes, but she was loyal, caring and had a strong will.

His mother and the rest of the family were going to love her, even if they became exasperated by her tomboyish nature. It wasn't a stretch to say that they were more overprotective of him than they were their own daughters.

Colonello had to hide his laughter every time the adults cooed over what a 'cute couple' they were. Especially since they seemed to think Lal was a slightly short sixteen year old, rather than her actual fourteen. She was far more mature than any other girl her age.

The two of them had a rather enjoyable weekend away from the castle and it was almost disappointing that it had to end too soon. Fortunately they didn't have to use the Knight Bus, as Colonello was fully licensed to apparate and was rather good at side-along.

Which was great because Lal didn't particularly_ like_ taking the bus in the first place. And the only thing that kept her from apparating was the fact she was very out of practice with it and it would take a lot of fast talking (and far too much gold) to explain why she was practicing in the first place. It was simply easier and faster to take the bus.

All in all, she thoroughly enjoyed the holiday...and the mock battle she had with her boyfriend over the chocolate.

* * *

Lal was decidedly unimpressed for the second task. Especially since Colonello was the one taken. However it was the panicked form of Fleur that had her going up to the older girl and giving her an uncharacteristic hug.

"Relax. If Gabrielle is down there I'll be sure to get her as well as my foolish boyfriend in the event you don't make it. Whoever reaches the hostages first frees them both, deal?"

"Deal," said Fleur, shaking on it. She relaxed knowing that her sister and favorite male cousins wouldn't remain underwater a second longer than they absolutely had to.

Lal, having learned how to swim _properly_ during military academy, promptly transfigured her outfit into a far more sensible wetsuit. It was fucking _cold_ and it was the middle of February. If she found out who had the brilliant idea for putting four minors into the lake in this weather when there was a stiff breeze going after being submerged for over an hour, she was going to strangle them.

Without magic.

Lal shivered briefly when the shot went off, and promptly hit herself with a modified bubblehead charm she learned in the years of dealing with Iemitsu's complete incompetence.

When she couldn't get away with buying more guns or toys, she researched spells. She found that every spell had a point where it would overload and blow up in your face, and blowing things up had always been oddly cathartic to her.

(On an unrelated note those in CEDEF were _thoroughly_ happy Lal couldn't get a period in her cursed state, or worse, menopause. God only knew what sort of hell would rain down upon some poor bastard...likely Iemitsu for causing her so much grief...if she had to deal with the hormonal imbalance caused by her gender.)

Lal swam to roughly where she remembered the colony being, before carefully diving. It wasn't that hard really...she wasn't really that bouyant in the first place and she just needed to add a bit of extra weight to make her sink.

She already had a wandless ice spell that would slowly bring them back up to the top like an elevator so that they didn't get the bends. The mermaids weren't likely to be very happy with it, but it would give them a view and plenty of air on the way back up. Besides, it would melt eventually.

That and she was doing to do it _outside_ the village. Really, they shouldn't have anything to complain about.

She reached the hostages first. As before, she saw Cho and Hermione tied to the pillars. This time however, she saw Colonello and Gabrielle there as well.

Thirty minutes passed, and she felt the pulse from Fleur indicating she had to return back to the shore. So she took her knife and began cutting Colonello and Gabrielle free.

Apparently her glare was sufficient enough to scare off the mermaids, because they backed off when she stared the 'head guard' down.

She managed to reach outside the village, before making a few complicated motions with her wand. A small disk of ice promptly formed under them, held up by four small pillars. A second motion created a tube that swiftly grew until it reached the surface and she did her best to make sure it extended a few feet above the water level.

Now for the tricky part.

She _pushed_ the water that was still in the tube into the bubble of air beneath her, constantly forcing it to flow out of the hole she made in the tube below.

It was a real exercise of her magic, even if she had already set it to 'self-sustaining' mode by the time they were halfway up the tube.

Thanks to the air pocket she also made, the other two were awake and watching the scenery around them with fascination.

Colonello used sign language, as he didn't want to strain Lal's magic too much by talking. Lal had been more than happy to share the book she had on the subject from her academy days.

_'You do realize you could probably get a Charms Mastery for this thing, right?'_ he signed.

_'The less time I spend in this ridiculous school, the happier I'll be,'_ she signed back.

Once they were on the surface, Lal promptly made the disk thick enough that it could float even with their weight, and used the same spell that was on the Hogwarts boats to push it to the shore.

By that point she was actually _exhausted_ for once and ready for a nap. Or Luna-cuddles, whichever came first.

If and when she found the one responsible for putting Gabrielle underwater for only an hour without even asking her consent, she would have their balls.

(A few days later one Ludo Bagman became completely and utterly terrified at the thought of being in the vicinity of Lilac Potter. She showed that despite what people thought about her, the Black heritage in her ran true... he also wished he had never heard of the strange delicacy known as "rocky mountain oysters"...as did the healers he had contacted to find out what happened to his poor testicles.)

* * *

When Lal spotted Crouch, the first thing she did was stun the man. The second thing she did was trip the infamous Mad-Eye Moody and give him a concussion so that he couldn't fight back the second she had a chance.

Seeing the metal container on the floor, she opened it up and gave an experimental sniff...before hissing and promptly handing it to Madam Pomphrey.

"This is polyjuice!" she said in shock, before promptly using the full body bind on Moody and Crouch both. The second she saw the Defense teacher change into someone else, she immediately called the Aurors.

In short order, a seething Amelia Bones was arresting both men...apparently the father had been placing his son under the Imperious curse for years.

However Lal had _ideas_ about what to do with Barty Crouch junior. From what Winky told her, it was possible he was another victim of the piss-poor judicial system in place directly after Voldemort disappeared.

"Madam Bones, a moment if you will. How do we know Crouch didn't immediately throw his son into Azkaban to avoid the embarrassment of having a marked Death Eater in the family? I mean the man was obviously willing to use dark magic to keep the 'shame' of his only living heir out of sight until recently and even went so far as to banish his own elf to hide the fact."

"You're suggesting he might be innocent."

"I'm suggesting he might be _'salvageable',_" corrected Lal. "After all, he is a member of the house of Black through his mother. And it would shut the headmaster up about his redemption nonsense if we at least _pretended_ to humor his so called ideals."

Madam Bones gave her an odd look.

"What do you have in mind?"

"Have the worst Death Eaters in Azkaban quietly executed and cite the dementors," said Lal immediately. "They've been there long enough that no one is really going to notice a long overdue culling and this incident gives you an excuse to do a proper census and discreetly place your own men in to deal with the high security cases. And I for one would sleep easier at night knowing those bastards won't have a chance of coming back to cause even_ more_ damage if another Dark Lord decided to try and recruit them the same way Grindelwald did."

Amelia Bones was above all a practical woman...and Black was right, no one would look twice at the deaths of many high-profile death eaters. In fact it would likely be a sense of _relief_ and closure for both their victims and some of the men in her department.

Lal felt a dark twinge of satisfaction when she overheard the news from Susan that there were a number of 'old death eaters' no longer among the living.

_A few weeks later..._

Lal was in the Ministry, being taken to a discreet room where they held the highest security prisoners.

Sirius was with her, as he was officially Lord Black and this was a 'family' matter.

"Any idea what this is about?" asked Sirius.

"Long story short, I'm planning of robbing the Dark Lord of another follower and giving us ammunition in the event Dumbledore takes offense to me having a zero tolerance policy during combat situations."

"Uh-huh. What did you do?"

"Expose a branch member of the family and suggest that the 'judge' at the time had been quick to toss him into Azkaban in order to avoid the 'embarassment' of having a death eater closely related to him. The fact the fool had the boy under the Imperious for several decades, when the war-time footing regarding unforgiveables was removed made things worse for said judge. As did the fact he cast out his elf to hide the truth."

Sirius often wondered how the hell his little pup managed to avoid Slytherin.

Barty Crouch junior looked a mess. Azkaban and forced imprisonment via imperious and a loyal elf did that to you.

However he was decidedly more sane than Bellatrix, and only followed Voldemort because he genuinely didn't have anywhere else to go thanks to the mark.

Lal wanted to see if he was beyond redemption, or if she could piss off both the Dark Lord and Dumbledore at the same time by using the blood connection between them.

"Are you aware of who I am?" asked Sirius. His ring indicating he was the head of the Black family was visible, leaving no room for error.

"Sirius Black, head of the ancient and noble house of Black," said Barty.

"Do you know why I am here?"

"I was told because you requested that my execution be a private affair, mostly so the Minister doesn't have a chance to cover it up," said Barty.

Sirius looked at Lal.

"It's your show pup."

Lal stepped out from behind Sirius.

"Just so we're clear, I'm only giving you this chance because we are technically family and it will keep that idiot Dumbledore from trying to claim I'm a 'dark witch' because I intend to brutally kill any death eater that faces me in battle. Having a 'redeemed' Death Eater on our side under oaths will make it hard for him to claim I don't follow his 'ideals' because of what he did with Snape."

Barty stared at her, then at Sirius.

"Don't look at me. She's the one behind why you're still alive and not suffering from the Kiss."

Lal's smirk was anything but nice.

"What do you want from me?" he asked.

"Are you aware that as of two years ago, magic declared _me_ the heir of Slytherin over the fool calling himself Voldemort?"

Barty gaped at her, and he wasn't the only one. Sirius was looking at his pup in absolute shock.

"What proof do you have?!" he said.

Lal hissed, and the basilisk she had taken from the Chamber poked out from under her collar. She had it unveil it's killing gaze on a rat she had brought with her, convincing both men that what she had was the real thing.

"This is Slytherin's basilisk, or Nidhogg. It swore it's allegiance to me over Voldemort when magic declared me the true heir of Slytherin. Not that Voldemort had any claim on the title of Lord Slytherin considering what he did to his own father and later to his uncle."

Seeing she had Barty's full attention, Lal promptly swore an oath that everything she was about to tell him was the truth as she was aware of it.

Barty's allegiance to the Dark Lord had been out of necessity because of his capture and imprisonment. Finding out he had been following a kinslayer and someone willing to pervert his magic to such a degree made put that loyalty on the edge of a knife. It would only take a small push to see it shattered forever.

Which was when Lal dropped her ultimatum.

"I want you to swear to serve the House of Black, and only the House of Black. If we put you under the proper oaths, there's a chance you might walk out of here relatively free...even if it takes a while for use to figure out how to remove those damn marks. After all, as far as the pure bloods would be concerned you would be making up for the error of following a true blood traitor by serving the main line."

Barty didn't think too hard about the offer. If he did this then he might be able to redeem his honor...and spit upon the very name his father had been so desperate to protect. With any luck he might even be able to legally end the Crouch line, which would really make his day.

"What do you need?"

"Madam Bones is looking through the records to see if Crouch was overly hasty in sending you to Azkaban. If you agree to a veritaserum testimony about your crimes and agree to the oaths, then it's possible we might be able to convince the Wizangamot to change your sentence. Otherwise...well, I'm sure you've heard of the fact that several of the more dangerous Death Eaters finally gave up the ghost."

Barty's estimation of Lilac Potter...no, this girl was a Black through and through...went up at that. Clearly she was behind the recent spate of deaths in Azkaban, though no one could _prove _that the former death eaters had died of anything short of natural causes.

Sirius was once again wondering how the _hell_ his pup managed to avoid Slytherin her first year.


	15. Chapter 15

Lal wasn't surprised when she heard Barty Crouch Jr. was "permitted" by the Wizangamot to serve under the house of Black as a Steward, rather than sending him right back to Azkaban. His father had been promptly fired the moment it came out what he had done, and this way they could all save face.

Not to mention Dumbledore had _highly_ approved of the idea, thinking it would help in his efforts to 'redeem' former Death Eaters.

He was unaware of the true culprit behind Barty's sudden change of heart, and Lal wasn't about to enlighten him as to her reasons for it.

_At the Third Task..._

By a landslide, Lal was the first to go in after her showing during the second task. Not only had she rescued two hostages, but the way she got them back up had Professor Flitwick putting her under evaluation for a Charms Mastery.

Apparently they _really_ liked her ice elevator, especially since it allowed one to go to the depths of the lake without actually getting wet. The mermaids were less than pleased, but the wizards were terrified of accidentally breaking a hole in the tube to bother them too much.

Lal was pretty sure the mermaid chef was _thrilled_ when the thing finally melted enough that the wizards had to give up on using it.

If she did get the Mastery, she was sure her mother would have been _thrilled_.

So what if she wasn't the youngest seeker in a century like last time? She would rather be the youngest Charms Mistress in history, which would last much longer.

She really hated the entire tournament...the only good thing that had come out of it was the fact that Colonello had shown up and they were able to officially start dating. Other than that, she wanted nothing to do with it.

Seeing the goblet, she gave the enchanted artifact the stink eye.

Barty had already warned her that it would be a portkey as he had spelled it to take her to a prearranged destination at the end of the third task. More to the point he was to sabotage the other competitors so that only Lilac would make it to the very end.

To that end, Lal had hidden a literal rabid badger into her bag. If she got to the goblet first, she was going to levitate the cage and remove the bottom, dumping the rather pissed off and diseased thing onto the cup directly.

She almost wished she could see the expression on Voldemort's face having to deal with an angry rabid badger trying to eat his face off.

She made it to the center, and as she had hoped the rabid animal and the cup disappeared at the same time. The hedges slammed down, revealing her to be in the center.

"Where's the goblet? We can't end this without the goblet," said Karkaroff.

"How should I know? I threw a rock at it to make sure the pedestal it was on wasn't trapped and the thing disappeared. You people never told us that the goblet was a portkey."

Karkaroff paled.

"I believe we can agree that Ms. Potter has won the tournament, yes?" said Madam Maxime. None of the other champions were remotely close to where the goblet was.

And with that, the tournament ended.

(The goblet was found over a month later and the poor auror who picked it up got a rather big surprise when he was flung against the wards of Hogwarts. The rookie learned a valuable lesson that day.)

* * *

Colonello bemoaned having to leave his lovely girlfriend, but contented himself with the fact Fleur and Gabrielle absolutely _adored_ Lilac. Not only was she completely immune to his allure (even when it wasn't being restricted at all), but she fit all the criteria of women who were allowed to join the Sisterhood as potential members.

That being said, quite a few of Lilac's friends had a good laugh at the monumental blush on her face when the carriages for the French delegation left, threatening to hex her boyfriend.

The first clue Lal had that the Marauders were up to something was the smirk Sirius had on his face when he announced they were heading to Italy for a proper vacation.

The second clue was the abrupt kidnapping and the way Sirius was too busy snickering to protect his pup from the mystery intruder.

The final clue was Colonello's grinning face.

She kicked him in the shin.

Colonello winced, but was still grinning.

"Where are we?"

"We," said a familiar voice, "Are currently in the territory of the Sisterhood. The matriarch and Colonello's grandmother wishes to meet the young woman her grandson wishes to court."

Lal brightened upon seeing Fleur and grinned when Gabrielle rushed up to hug her.

"Too bad Luna isn't here."

"She'll be here by tomorrow. Grandmother wished to meet you solo so that she has a better understanding of the young witch who captured his heart," said Fleur with a smirk.

"I sense far too many hours of shopping on Sirius' money."

"You would be correct so long as Grandmother agrees to the match."

"Are you..." started Lal, but Fleur shook her head.

"Any Veela that rises to the status of matriarch is automatically referred to grandmother. Colonello just happens to be related to his."

"Ah."

Colonello waited, almost on pins and needles as Lal went in to face his grandmother. He was rather nervous, despite the sympatethic looks Fleur was giving him.

And then...it happened.

One minute he was worried, the next there was a veritable _wave_ of power coming from the room that definitely didn't belong to his grandmother.

It was hard to describe the feeling, but the predominant ones felt almost like a rain that drenched the ground through thick clouds and created a dense mist on the ground...and under it was the sense of a vast sky above the cloud lines that stretched as far as the eye could see.

It took calling his name twice before he scurried into the room to find a less than amused Lilac and his very intrigued grandmother.

"You neglected to tell me that your lady love had the ruling aspect."

"To be fair, _I_ had no idea I had it," said Lal. "I thought I was just a Rain with a strong Cloud/Mist secondary."

The idea of her being a Sky had honestly never occurred to her. Though in hindsight it was pretty obvious her willingness to sacrifice herself had done something to her original primary. It also explained why she found it so much easier to use Cloud...it had been her original primary, but when her Sky was shattered her Rain must have filled the void, with the Mist representing her magic.

She vaguely recalled Viper mentioning that Mists often came from strong magical bloodlines.

Then again, Flame theory wasn't really her thing. Who knew how she suddenly developed Sky flames of all things?

Lal looked at the odd orb the older woman had tossed her.

Actually, now that she was observing her flames properly it seemed her Cloud had become her new primary with the Rain and Mist being secondaries. The Sky flames were weak, but well hidden by the first three, which she found a blessing because the mafia had a nasty habit of forcing unknown Skies to join up with their famiglia.

Now that she knew it was there, it definitely explained the awful feeling she used to get around Iemitsu. It always felt like his flames were rubbing fresh sandpaper on her soul every time he brought them out to dominate someone.

"_What's the verdict, Nonna?_" asked Colonello.

"_I like her. She would make a very suitable wife for you, my little deluge. She can keep your less impressive habits well in line, as a woman should,"_ said his grandmother with open approval.

Lal had met her gaze head on, and didn't back down.

Now for the final test...to see if Lilac Black truly _was_ immune to her grandson's full allure.

Colonello let his control go completely and without a single warning. Lal raised an eyebrow, but unlike any other woman without veela blood she didn't try to rip his clothes off or her own in an attempt to sleep with him, willing or not.

A normal veela's allure made the men around them act like idiots in an effort to impress them...including some rather unfortunate instances where the men lost control and tried to assault the veela in question.

Which was the main reason the _wizards_ acted as though Veela were beasts sent to lure perfectly reasonable pure bloods into infidelity through their 'unnatural powers'.

It was a different story for male veela. If they weren't born with an inherit control over their allure, they would be assaulted by women and certain men the second their unfortunate victims came within range. It was too strong for anyone without enough veela heritage to handle, thus finding a wife outside the Sisterhood was almost impossible.

The fact Lal wasn't trying to rip his clothes off and looked decidedly bored, despite the fact his allure wasn't being inhibited at all by his natural control meant she was a very rare find indeed.

Colonello carefully put his allure back under control.

"I have said it before and I'll say it again. I find it ridiculous that people seem to think you used your natural abilities to make me fall in love with you," said Lal flatly.

There was one other test that they hadn't bothered to try.

He allowed his natural veela form out, which amusingly enough looked quite a bit like his animagus form.

Lal stared for all of three seconds before a soft smile appeared on her face, and she gently stroked his beak in a way that made him croon with delight. That felt way too good, and it was clear she had practice thanks to her owl.

It made him wonder how good she was at preening feathers...

"_Well?"_ demanded Fleur.

"_Grandmother approved,"_ said Colonello with relief.

She had not only approved of Lal, but she had given him full permission to surprise his beloved by transferring to Hogwarts for his final year.

From what he had found out from Lal's head of house, it would likely be her final year as well. She had shot ahead of her fellow students like a rocket, so there really wasn't much point in keeping her in the school when she could easily pass her N.E.W.T.'s two years early.

She didn't even need to take her Charms or her Defense Against the Dark Arts exams... the second task and that odd ice elevator she had made resulted in her being the youngest ever Charms Mistress since she was able to provide a thesis on how she pulled it off that impressed five other Masters.

The fact that only a handful could pull it off due to the power requirements was a minor note. The important part was the written thesis and that the theory was sound. That plus the fact she had mastered the Patronus to the point she could cast it wandlessly.

Anyone who mastered such a difficult spell like the Patronus to the level she had was worthy of earning a Charms Mastery.

As for the Defense...well, she had already been at the head of the pack and the patronus _did_ earn anyone who could cast it during the exams an instant Outstanding. Most of Defense was learning offensive charms with a few hexes, jinxes and curses thrown in for good measure, along with how to identify and deal with the common magical pests. And her unconventional use of spells during the Defense practical, when she had requested that she be allowed to duel one of the examiners rather than the usual spells had made it clear she knew the subject inside and out.

The only thing that had stopped her from getting a defense Mastery was the fact she needed to study under a recognized master. She had only gotten Charms because of Flitwick and the fact he had been tutoring her in advanced spells for a few years now and vouched for her.

"By the way...was that your animagus form I saw, or your natural veela form?" asked Lal curious.

"A bit of both. Male veela have the natural knack for the transformation. The girls can do it too, but most generally don't bother since they can get so vain when their veela side is exposed around others," admitted Colonello. "What about you? Ever thought of becoming an animagus?"

Lal snickered.

"I'm saving that for my Transfiguration N.E.W.T.'s. Animagi get an automatic Outstanding because of the difficulty involved, and thanks to all the things I've been exposing on the years Madam Bones decided to save herself the headache and had me listed on the 'secure' list of known animagi, which isn't available to the public. Which means when I show my animal form out, I won't automatically be fined for not having it registered."

"Really? What's your form?" asked Colonello with interest.

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours," said Lal cheekily.

Colonello shifted, and a peregrine falcon sat calmly on Fleur's shoulder.

He very nearly dropped in shock when Lal turned into a _gryffin_ of all things!

Fleur snorted.

"Of course you would become smitten with one of the few women who can turn into a magical creature as her animagus form," said Fleur dryly.

Lal switched back, absolutely smug.

"So when does Grandmother want to introduce the newest member of the Sisterhood?" asked Fleur to her cousin.

"Wait, _what_?" said Lal in shock.

"It's an unspoken rule that men must marry only to those in the Sisterhood," explained Fleur. "Which is why Grandmother's approval is so important...it means we can perform the ritual and make you an official member, even though you're not a veela at all."

Lal was silent for a moment.

"What does the ritual entail?"

"Basically it's acknowledging via a magical pact that you are one of us, which means that should something happen to you the Sisterhood would happily rise up to defend you as family should. It also means that if you see one of the Sisterhood in trouble, that you are highly encouraged to help them if necessary...so long as pride doesn't get in the way," said Colonello. "It was created as a defense against the Ministries who kept labeling Veela as 'evil' simply because their men couldn't control their baser urges and kept insisting that they were 'coerced' by the allure."

Lal snorted at that.

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and that goes double for women who are sneaky enough to use their sex to make men dance to their tune when pissed."

"The Ministries don't like to acknowledge it, especially in England, but our influence rivals the goblins," said Fleur.

"So if I were to highlight a plan that would effectively allow werewolves to own businesses by proxy..." said Lal.

"So long as it's viable, most of the Sisterhood would support you. Veela and werewolves have been aiding each other for years," said Fleur. "Most of them are immune to our allure and they almost never attack us during the full moon because our scent is different enough not to set them off."

"What plan did you have in mind?" asked Colonello.

"Law states that magical werewolves can't own a business and most of the stores are pure blood owned. But there's nothing against them acting as a 'proxy' owner for someone else."

Fleur smirked.

"I get it. You agree to act as the official 'owner' on record and have them enter into a partnership with you, but in reality they're the ones responsible for the business. And since you already know about their condition, you can hire muggleborns or squibs to handle the business during full moons, allowing them to earn a living without having to deal with English idiocy."

"Exactly! Not only is it a good source of gold, but it also means that I earn a lot of allies from a source that has been relatively untapped. The Dark Lord offered them equality, but it's clear to anyone with a brain he doesn't really mean it. Meanwhile I work around the system and give them a fair chance at a normal life despite their furry little problem."


	16. Chapter 16

Lal was dressed in a simple shift, her familiar Joan on her shoulder. Considering how close she was to her owl, and the fact that the Sisterhood was mainly made of up of Veela who often had avian attributes when pissed off, it was deemed acceptable for her to be there.

Joan was the closest she had ever come to a flame-bonded familiar, and was likely why she was the _only_ one of the Arcobaleno who had never actually gotten one.

She saw the eternal flame burning in the center and gently stroked Joan's breast feathers.

Seeing the discreet nod from Fleur, Lal entered the ritual circle...and began to dance.

It took her a few moments to register as more veela began to dance with her, and the odd human member thrown into the mix. The fire began to blaze even higher, until it became a veritable bonfire.

That was when the humming began, only to switch into full on singing. There were no words, and the melody wasn't exactly harmonious as everyone sang a different note.

Lal remembered what she had been told, that she had to fixate on a song that she felt suited her best.

For some reason, she immediately thought of the song "I'm a Survivor" by the American country singer Reba.

She found herself pulled into a small cluster of veela she didn't recognize, humming into harmony with her. Apparently she wasn't the only one to have that song in mind during this ritual.

The full moon shined merrily down upon them as the fire spread across the room. So you could imagine her shock when Joan suddenly flew into the center, becoming part of the flame. However Lal knew better than to interrupt the ritual, so she kept dancing.

That was when she felt it. The slight familiar bond she had with Joan suddenly became a full blown one. She wondered if this was what Colonello and the others felt with their flame-bonded animals.

Joan let out a strange cry that sounded almost exactly like a phoenix.

The singing reached a crescendo and Lal felt something settle into her core. It felt like coming home and knowing she would always have someone there to have her back.

Her legs felt like jelly, but her spirit was higher that she had ever felt.

Joan settled onto her shoulder, and to her shock her familiar had changed drastically.

Where there had once been a magnificent and highly intelligent snow owl was a phoenix. One she recognized vaguely from listening to Fon debate about various mythologies with Skull once or twice.

Lal snorted.

"Figures you were a Ho-Ou. I guess I had to find myself before you were willing to reveal your true nature, huh Joan?"

Joan nipped her ear affectionately, her silvery feathers streaked with deep blue, indigo and thick streaks of violet. However her eyes were a bright amber orange and filled with more intelligence than some of the people she had met.

She felt someone stride across the circle and pick her up in a princess carry.

It was Colonello. He affectionately kissed her on the cheek.

"Food's ready!" he called out to the others.

Hearing the tired cheer from the other women, Lal grinned.

* * *

_A few days later..._

"So when's the wedding?" asked Sirius.

Lal glared at him from past her coffee.

"Preferably after we're _both_ out of school," said Colonello. "I mean mom could care less if we bonded before that since the betrothal contract was written up and filed, but I would rather have a chance to escape the wedding madness than have to hear my relatives coo over what a cute couple we are."

Lal sputtered.

"Say what now?!"

Colonello gave her a sympathetic look.

"Veela, remember? Our ideas of courtship are slightly different from the norm. Since you're part of the Sisterhood, the whole wedding is mostly a formality and to keep things legal among the humans. You have no idea how many 'domestic partners' are in the Sisterhood, since quite a few places don't allow same-gender marriages."

"Considering the average wizard is a complete idiot..." said Lal.

"Actually it's a bigger issue with the mundanes. There are potions to help same-gender couples in the magical world concieve," commented Sirius. "And really, no one will care if you two start going at it like bunnies so long as you're married before the baby bump shows."

Colonello wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Wait until my birthday, lover boy. Fourteen is a bit young for me to consider it," she shot back.

"I can wait!" said Colonello with cheer.

(Sirius gave Colonello a thumbs up at the fact Lal was too tired to walk after her rather massive birthday party. She certainly had no complaints about his stamina.)

* * *

Viper took one look at Lilac Potter and the idiot who introduced himself as Cole, and snorted.

"Well at least this time I don't have to suffer his moping about not being able to properly woo the tsundere," they said flatly.

Lal stared at Viper in absolute shock.

There was no way Viper actually remembered, right?

"That's rich, coming from you," said Lal with snark.

Viper's eyes narrowed under their hood.

"...Lal Mirch?"

"Mammon," said Lal smirking.

Viper swore rather creatively in three different languages.

"How long have you had your memories?"

"Since I woke up at five and realized I had a chance to do things right...or at least not have to suffer the idiots twice. Was not expecting to run into Colonello this early," said Lal flatly.

Viper smirked at them.

"How did you know I had my memories as well?"

"I didn't, but only a fool would dismiss getting on the good side of the world's top information broker before they were well known," replied Lal. "Besides... I needed someone to act as my go-between with the goblins. I have several profitable ventures I'm sure you would find _very_ interesting."

"How interesting?"

"As in it allows _us_ to earn gold without having to lift a finger beyond signing some paperwork making me a partner in new businesses that get a decent amount of gold as a 'start-up loan' and pisses off the inept morons that run the magical ministry."

"You had me at gold and pissing off the pure bloods," said Viper flatly.

Lal looked at them with sympathy.

"Squib?" she asked.

"Misogynist father. Won't _he_ be surprised when my dear younger brother finds out that he can't wear the ring because I had the sense to leave rather than stick around and be molded into a proper pure blood," said Viper in disgust. "Mother reluctantly helped and claimed that I had suffered an 'accident'."

Lal blinked.

"Which family? I might be able to help really piss them off."

Viper paused, then for the first time in living memory took off their hood.

"Oh...my...god... You're related to _Draco_?!" said Lal, looking very much like she wanted to howl.

Aside from the silver-blond hair, Viper looked near identical to her mother Narcissa, formerly of the Black family. It was clear that Viper dyed their hair to avoid anyone recognizing them, but no sane person bothered with their eyebrows.

"You know my idiot brother?"

"He used to walk around like a carbon copy of Lucius before I started taking him to task. I'm the unofficial 'big sister' for everyone under sixteen year," said Lal.

Lal wasn't sure if she would get the prefect position because of her age, or the Head Girl because of her maturity. She knew the prefect was in the bag because she was honestly the most responsible of the lot in Ravenclaw.

"...Would it be too much to ask for your assistance once my dear 'father' learns I am very much alive and have claimed the ring belonging to the heir of the family? I know he was most displeased when it went 'missing' shortly after grandfather died and I had my 'accident'."

"I would be delighted cousin. Who knows, maybe we can really piss him off by setting you up with Fon long before he learns you're alive."

"Cousin?" repeated Viper.

Remus had only said that "Lal Mirch" wanted to get in touch with Viper for general rumors and a basic info packet on the most recent happenings of the mafia.

Lal grinned wickedly.

"You mean you didn't know? My birth name is Lilac Potter-Black, soon to be head of the Potter family and once this idiot gets me knocked up, the Blacks as well. Your mother Narcissa used to be a Black before she married into the Malfoy family."

Viper stared at her in absolute shock.

"YOU'RE POTTER?!" she nearly shrieked. "You mean to tell me this _entire_ time I had been working alongside my cousin?!"

"One with vaults full of gold from several different sources that have been languishing until I decided to take control and say screw the rules."

Viper grabbed her by the shirt.

"You will make me your financial adviser or I will hex you silly."

"Do I _look_ like I enjoy balancing my accounts?" said Lal with a shudder. "I'll leave the math to you so long as I remain flush with cash and only have to smile and look pretty while pissing off the hide bound assholes."

Viper calmed down at that, and put their hood back on.

"Good."

"That being said, I might need some solidarity against the Sisterhood. They're dead set on making the wedding as fancy as humanly possible because I'm marrying _into_ the Sisterhood through Colonello."

Viper eyed the blond oddly.

"You're a member of the Sisterhood?"

"He's one of the rare males in the Italian branch," deadpanned Lal.

"...Why do I keep imagining you with a black frog on your head with red eyes and constantly complaining about money?" asked Colonello finally.

Both women whipped their heads to look at him. Viper didn't have a frog with her at all, so why did Colonello give a basic description of Fantasma.

"A frog?"

"Yeah, one I see turning into a weird snake that allows you to hover. It's really messing with me."

"Colonello...what image comes to mind when you first saw me at that summer camp?"

Colonello blinked at the odd question, before he answered her. The odd expression only grew worse.

"You don't think..."

"It's possible his connection to you might have dragged some of his memories with him. Only one way to find out," said Viper.

Colonello stared at the odd white falcon with intense eyes that promptly flew to his shoulder. He _knew_ that falcon.

"How do you two know about Falco?" he asked confused. He hadn't even _found_ his true familiar yet, but he was one of the rare few his Grandmother had assured would find that one creature that spoke to his soul completely.

Lal face-palmed.

"This explains way too much. Long story short, both of us have memories from a future that hasn't happened yet, and might not happen if we do things right. From the sound of it, you have fragments of your own memories of that time but it's not as complete as ours," said Lal.

"Really?" said Colonello in shock. That definitely explained his beloved's ease when it came to theory and why she was so good with practical...she already had the experience and her younger body was catching up!

Lal smiled at him.

"Just so you know, I was fully intending to seek you out once I realized what happened. I just never thought we would run into each other so fast or that we would fall for each other a second time. Last time I was hindered because you were my student and I could never get over that."

Colonello's grin when he heard that was wide. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on the forehead with fondness.

"By the way...how would your father react if he knew you were taken into the Sisterhood _and_ was the acting financial adviser for the Potter-Black fortunes?" asked Lal deviously.

"It would piss him off immensely because he would need approval from the Sisterhood to marry me off, and it meant that I would be able to usurp any control over my life because grandfather favored me over father," said Viper immediately. "I just have to pass my NEWTs, or get married and be expecting to be named the full head of the family, since very few are aware that Lucius had been passed over in favor of his daughter."

"...We really need to find Fon, if only so he can join in on the fun of setting off the pure bloods," said Lal.

"Agreed," said Viper. "Now what exactly did you do to start earning gold without having to do much of anything?"

"Easy. I let the werewolves and muggleborns use my family name to start their business with the agreement that they would pay back the 'loan' by making me equal partner in the business. Officially I _own_ it, which means the laws about werewolves don't come into effect, and if asked the muggleborns can claim they are merely managers which keeps the pure bloods from harassing them. Naturally the muggleborns, squibs and other 'undesireables' will happily buy from their own because our prices will be more reasonable and the items will have vastly more appeal than the current stock since I allow them to put things up at their own discreetion. Which means I get a percentage of the gold without having to do most of the work since I'm just the poster girl."

"Devious and befitting a Black," said Viper with open approval. "Mother would approve once she figures out what's going on."


End file.
